Morgan Stanley becomes shareholder of the Bucharest Stock Exchange

The BSE Council has approved the deal under which Morgan Stanley paid 150 lei per share and will not have any voting rights. The deal pushes up BSE’s market value to more than 160 million euros. People close to the deal say the international financial institution is interested in performing brokerage operations in Romania and the take over of a local brokerage firm was not excluded.

BSE’s shareholders consist of 73 brokerage firms and 16 individuals. The institution has a share capital of 34.84 million lei and wants to boost it to 49.4 million lei. BSE posted a 15.5 million lei (4.5 million euros) net profit.

Morgan Stanley manages assets totaling 717 billion U.S. dollars and has 58,333 employees all over the world. The institution runs 600 units in 32 countries.