Quality Assessment for Corporate Governance Compliance: the Case of BSE-MTF Listed Entities

Abstract

Over the past two years a significant number of issuers have emerged on the AeRO Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) organized and managed by the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE). Preliminary assessments concluded that investors’ interest for the recent AeRO public offerings of equity and debt seemed to be even greater than in case of the regulated market, possibly explained by a higher return on investments. On the other hand, a preference for the AeRO market instead of the regulated market has been also noticed among the inssuers trying to avoid compliance costs related to financial reporting and corporate governance. These assumptions are relevant to sustain a research direction related to a quality assessment of compliance with relevant corporate governance principles that AeRO issuers must also embrace and implement. The research methodology includes governance compliance inspections, issuers’ website screenings and annual report reviews. The sample of issuers is formed by the 20 issuers included in the BETAeRO Index launched on 11th of October, 2021. We expect that our findings will provide a relevant basis of conclusions to support a broaden utility of the Vektor transparency index, which should be extended for AeRO issuers as well.