On November 20th, 2025, the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) celebrated 30 years since its reopening, organizing a series of anniversary events along with various representatives of the Romanian capital market. Three decades ago, the first transactions took place on the BVB, and the Romanian investment landscape as we know it today began to take shape.
On the occasion of its anniversary, investors, brokers, issuers, authorities, journalists, organizations operating on the capital market, and the BVB team gathered between November 17th and 20th to mark this festive moment with speeches and panels rich in relevant information about the BVB’s journey over the past 3 decades, as well as about the present and future of the Stock Exchange. We would like to thank all participants who joined us for the anniversary events, either as speakers, guests in the hall, or as a virtual audience. We celebrated together an important milestone in the evolution of the Stock Exchange and reiterated the significant role played by the vision and dedication of the professionals who make up the local capital market community.
”The Bucharest Stock Exchange reflects today the maturity of investors, of the listed companies, and of all professionals involved. Over the past 30 years, the Romanian capital market has evolved significantly – the number of listed companies has grown to over 330, the total market capitalization is now approaching RON 500 billion, the financial instruments have diversified, and the number of investors is increasing from one quarter to the next, currently exceeding 274,000 investment accounts on the BVB. I strongly believe that the coming decades will bring an even stronger development of the capital market, which will consolidate its position and attractiveness internationally and will give us even more confidence in the potential of the Romanian economy,” said Remus Vulpescu, CEO of the BVB.
On the first day, November 17th, two panels rich in ideas and inspiration for stock market investors took place at the BVB headquarters. The first panel brought together retail investors, some of whom were just starting their journey, in a captivating discussion about the Romanian capital market and about investment decisions. Our guests were Diana-Camelia Buruian, Grants & Incentives consultant, Dana Lupu, engineer, Razvan Mihaescu, student, and Alexandru Dejanu, software engineer, in a discussion moderated by Liviu Popescu, journalist at Ziarul Financiar.
The second discussion panel on the first day focused on investments from the perspective of fund managers. We were delighted to welcome some of Romania’s most prominent investment and pension fund managers: Corina Cojocaru, CEO of BT Pensii, Cristi Pascu, Vice President of the Fund Administrators Association (AAF), Mihai Purcarea, CEO & President of BRD Asset Management, Milan Prusan, Executive Director of Goldman Sachs Asset Management Romania, Razvan Pasol, CEO of Patria Asset Management. The panel moderator was Horia Gusta, President of AAF.
On the second day, November 18th, we focused on intermediaries on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, and the two discussion panels offered valuable and diverse perspectives from brokers. The first panel, entitled “How have brokerage services evolved in the 30 years of existence for the Stock Exchange?”, brought together long-standing intermediaries on the Romanian capital market: Valerian Ionescu, Supervisor of the Treasury Products Management Office at BCR, Adrian Simionescu, President of SAI Muntenia Invest, Octavian Molnar, CEO of IFB Finwest, Lucian Isac, CEO of Estinvest, Nicu Moroianu, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Communication at ASE Bucharest, in a discussion moderated by Mariana Ciurel, who has been part of the BVB team for almost two decades.
At the second panel on the day dedicated to brokers, we had the pleasure of listening to a discussion that provided useful insights about the significance of being a broker on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, and about the challenges and opportunities they face in 2025. The discussion, moderated by Adina Ardeleanu, Financial Intelligence journalist, was joined by Elena Uleia, Director of Prime Transaction Operations, Ovidiu Dumitrescu, Deputy General Manager of BRK Financial Group, Marius Stoica, Executive Director of Financial Markets at BRD, Alexandru Dobre, Deputy General Manager of TradeVille, and Antonio Oroian, Senior Broker at Goldring.
On November 19, the bell in the Bell Wing hall of the Bucharest Stock Exchange rang symbolically at the opening of the trading session and, of course, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the BVB, accompanied by the representatives of issuers and authorities. Radu Hanga, President of the BVB, gave the opening speech of the event, followed by Viorel Baltaretu, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Economy, Alexandru Petrescu, President of the Financial Supervisory Authority, Gabriel Avramescu, Prime Vice-president of the Financial Supervisory Authority, Leonardo Badea, First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Romania, and Pavel-Casian Nitulescu, Secretary of State, Ministry of Energy.
On behalf of the issuers, representatives of companies included in the BET and BET-FI indices honoured us with their presence and delivered speeches on the BVB anniversary: Liviu Vatavu, Head of Legal and Corporate Governance of Antibiotice, Jean Dumitrescu, Director of Investor Relations of Aquila Part Prod Com, Bogdan Plesuvescu, Deputy CEO of Banca Transilvania, Claudiu Cercel, Deputy CEO of BRD-Groupe Societe Generale, Serghei Bulgac, CEO of Digi Communications, Alexandru Chirita, CEO of Electrica, Daniel Naftali, Portfolio Manager at Franklin Templeton, the manager of Fondul Proprietatea, Dragos Rosu, M&A and IR Department Manager of Hidroelectrica, Sorin Cioaca, CEO & President of Infinity Capital, Dorin Preda, Deputy CEO of MedLife, Adrian Simionescu, President of SAI Muntenia Invest, the manager of Longshield Investment Group, Oana Bucur, Head of Strategic Finance Projects & Investor Relations at OMV Petrom, Cosmin Samoila, CFO of One United Properties, Alexandru Filip, CEO of Purcari Wineries, and Calin Ionescu, CEO of Sphera Franchise Group.
We dedicated November 20th, the day on which the BVB officially celebrated 30 years since the first transactions were carried out after reopening, to the employees of the BVB Group, through a personal event aimed at bringing us closer together as a team. First, we brought together those who contributed to the evolution of the Stock Exchange since their beginning, namely: Stere Farmache, Sergiu Oprescu, Septimiu Stoica, and Lucian Anghel, former presidents of the BVB over the years, in a captivating discussion moderated by Ileana Botez, who has been part of the BVB team since 1995.
Looking back, 30 years of BVB have meant significant growth in the capital market: from 9 companies listed in 1995, now there are over 330; while in 2019 there were 54,000 investors on the BVB, at the end of September this number exceeded 274,412; currently, the capitalization of the Stock Exchange is over RON 480 billion, while in 1995 its value was RON 25.9 million; in 2023, the historic listing of Hidroelectrica took place, with an IPO worth EUR 1.9 billion; the Fidelis government bond program has attracted over RON 60 billion since its relaunching in 2020; the number of transactions has increased significantly—from 379 transactions in 1995 to 1.72 million transactions at the end of September 2025; the total value of transactions reached over RON 31 billion at the end of September 2025, up from RON 246,000 in 1995, reaching a historic record of RON 38 billion in 2023; the average daily liquidity for all instruments was RON 49,281 in 1995, and at the end of September 2025 it exceeded RON 168.8 million.
At the same time, the BET index, the main index of the BVB, launched in 1997, reached a new historic high of 20,000 points this year, while BET-TR, the version of the BET index that also includes dividend reinvestment, exceeded the threshold of 50,000 points. Currently, 25 companies listed on the BVB have at least one Market Maker. In terms of the representativeness of BVB issuers in international indices, 12 companies are included in the FTSE Russell indices for Emerging Markets, and 34 companies are included in the MSCI indices. In fact, in 2025, MSCI recognized the Romanian capital market as an Advanced Frontier Market, which symbolizes a milestone in Romania’s quest to obtain Emerging Market status from MSCI. A video showing the evolution of the main BVB indicators over time can be viewed HERE, and a video including the most important moments in the 30-year history of the Stock Exchange is available HERE.
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