Confidence in the success of the BSE-Sibex merger is very low. Even some of the members of the Board of the BSE said in an unequivocal manner, three days before the General Shareholder Meeting when the merger was supposed to be discussed, that it would not happen.
Octavian Molnar, a member on the board of directors of the BSE, said: "Even though the shareholders of the Sibiu Exchange will vote in favor of the merger with the BSE, there won"t be any kind of union, because it is not wanted in Sibiu".
The statement of Mr. Molnar is unsettling, as it comes just three days prior the General Shareholder Meetings of the of the BSE and of Sibex, where the shareholders of the two companies are being asked to vote on the principle of the merger between the two exchanges. Octavian Molnar is also the first member of the management of the Bucharest Stock Exchange to be so blunt about the possibility of the merger not going through.
A little earlier, Tedor Ancuţa, the president and CEO of the Sibiu Exchange, had assured that the shareholders of Sibiu will vote in favor of the merger, and said that he was negotiating with Daniel Ţepeş and Cristian Sima on the matter.
"The shareholders of Sibiu may approve the principle of the merger, but approving and doing are two very different things", Octavian Molnar said, who added: "I wouldn"t be surprised if the people of Sibiu asked for a parity of 1 to 1, or 1 to 2 (between the shares of BSE and of SBX), which is something that the people in Bucharest will never accept. I want the merger, but I can"t do it alone. The BSE also wants the merger, and will maintain this stance in the negotiations in Sibiu, but it would seem that in Sibiu they don"t want it".
Even though the resumption of the talks on the merger was announced with great fanfare in the beginning of 2011, it didn"t take long for frictions to appear
