The BVB Arena Nominations Committee has selected 50 semi-finalists out of the 409 companies nominated on the platform www.bvbarena.ro. From today, 8^th of July, to the end of the month, on 31^st of July, the public will be able to choose, by voting on www.bvbarena.ro, 3 of the 15 finalists of BVB Arena 2024 edition. The BVB Arena program, run since 2017 by the Bucharest Stock Exchange, has exceeded 1,500 companies enrolled in the program. Each edition has reached new records in terms of interest in the program, materialized in the growing number of nominated companies.

‘This year, as every year since the launching of BVB Arena, we eagerly awaited the selection of semi-finalist companies to confirm, once again, the value that Romanian entrepreneurs bring to the local economy. Directly, through the products and services they produce, through the ingenuity of the businesses they run, and indirectly through the well-being they generate for their employees and their families. This year’s edition is no exception, we have companies included in the program that are more or less known to the general public, and I am glad that they have accepted to be part of the BVB Arena community. Every BVB Arena company is in fact a winner, as the BVB Arena mentoring program is intended for all nominees’, said Radu Hanga, President of the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

The 50 semi-finalist companies are:

‘The number of companies nominated in this year’s BVB Arena program, as well as the typology of the 50 semi-finalists, are signs of the growing interest of entrepreneurs towards the capital market and the success of this program. We know that the time from the intention to the listing of a company is not a short one, but we are confident that Romanian entrepreneurs understand better and better, thanks to BVB Arena, what are the direct and indirect advantages of financing on the stock market. Because you don’t just raise capital on the stock market, you also get intangible advantages, such as notoriety, visibility, and strengthening your reputation. We already have several examples of success: since the beginning of the program, more than 20 companies have come to the stock exchange with shares or bonds, and the financing rounds have reached almost EUR 240mn’, said Adrian Tanase, CEO of Bucharest Stock Exchange.

In the first stage of the BVB Arena project, which took place between April 23 and May 31, 2024, supporters of the program, together with the Nominations Committee, proposed more than 400 Romanian companies through the www.bvbarena.ro platform. Most nominated companies are from commerce (17%), followed by those from the IT&C sector (12%), food and processing industry with 11% each, services with 10% and construction companies with 7%. At the level of geographical distribution, Bucharest and Ilfov have 37% out of the total number of companies, followed by Cluj, Iasi, Brasov, Bacau, Suceava, Constanta. Regarding the segmentation of nominated companies, 81% are small and medium companies, 9% Start-ups and 10% Corporate.

The public vote will send 3 companies directly to the BVB Arena 2024 final, while the remaining 12 will be chosen by the BVB Arena Jury, made up of experts in various fields of the economy. The 15 finalist companies in the BVB Arena 2024 edition will be publicly announced during the Premiere Gala in the fall. Between October and November 2024, the BVB Arena program provides a mentoring stage in which finalist and semi-finalist companies, companies nominated in the current edition or registered in the program platform will be able to participate.

BVB Arena is a program of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, initiated since 2017 under the name Made in Romania, dedicated to identifying and promoting successful local entrepreneurial companies. The new name of the program – BVB Arena – announced with the launch of this year’s edition, places this initiative dedicated to Romanian entrepreneurs under the umbrella of BVB projects.

Through the development of the www.bvbarena.ro platform, the Bucharest Stock Exchange positions itself as the main financing channel for Romanian entrepreneurs, alongside the banking sector. At the same time, the platform is dedicated to investors, consultants and to companies with growth prospects, who want to attract financing from investors or who are in the process of preparing a private placement on the AeRO Market or the Main Market.

In 2024, the project is supported by CEC Bank with partners: BRK Financial Group, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Banca Transilvania, BT Capital Partners, Goldring,  Mazars, BNT Attorneys, Termene.ro, Propaganda, with the support of Financial Supervisory Authority, the Institute of Financial Studies (ISF), the Romanian Investor Relations Association (ARIR), Romanian Business Leaders (RBL), Envisia, Camera de Comert si Industrie Germana and Digi24.

08.07.2024 / Editor, Andreea Dragan