Macedonian Stock Exchange History | Organization Structure

1995

The story of the Macedonian Stock-Exchange began in 1995. On September 13th the Inaugural Meeting of the Macedonian Stock Exchange took place. This is the official date of the establishment of the first organized securities exchange in the history of the Republic of Macedonia considering that the country had never before had a stock exchange. The Exchange was established as a joint stock company operat­ing on a non-profit basis, with a founding capital of one million deutschmarks. The total number of the initial founders of the Macedonian Stock Exchange was 19 (13 banks, 3 insur­ance companies and 3 saving houses). These founders simultaneously became first Exchange members with right to trade in securities.

1996

The Exchange’s birthday is connected with the date of 28th March 1996, when the Exchange bell rang for the first time. Thus the official beginning of the trading was an­nounced. The modest amount of transactions of the first day of trading did not reduce the feeling that with this act a new Macedonian economic history was being cre­ated. In the beginning the Exchange was open for trading twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The conclusion of transactions was carried out on the “stock exchange floor” in the trading hall through the method of continuous auction and the model of “order-driven market”. On October 16th 1996 the Macedonian Stock-Exchange was accepted as a full mem­ber of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS).

1997

1997 was a year in which the limiting factors for the development of the secondary securities market in the country were detected. In February the new Law on Issuance and Trading in Securities was passed which proscribed that all the securities transactions in the Republic of Macedonia should be realized on the stock exchange which from today’s foreshortening is confirmed as a visionary and a strategi­cally optimal solution. The Macedonian Stock Exchange during the course of the year organized and conducted a wide informative-educational campaign to raise the awareness of the country’s securities market operations. The Exchange also launched its own Internet web-page.

1998

The new regulation on the securities market operations brought better re­sults in the 1998 trading. The introduction of the block transactions initiated the process of intensive ownership consolidation and concentration of the trading companies’ shares in the hands of a smaller number of shareholders. In this year MSE published the Stock exchange manual. The international collaboration and the participation of foreign investments in the Exchange made a considerable growth in this year.

1999

The year 1999 was rather turbulent for the Macedonian Stock Exchange. Towards the end of the year two events occurred which would have a positive long-term influence on the growth of the Exchange and the Macedonian securities market in the period that followed. In November began an implementa­tion of the USAID project for capital market development in the Republic of Mace­donia which included several different areas of operation of both the Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission. In December the Securities Law was amended, which set the basis for dematerialization of securities and introduced the centralized record keeping of shares ownership in the Republic of Macedonia. That same month, under the leadership of an expert team from the Kingdom of Norway, commenced a realization of the project to develop a feasibility study on Central Securities Depository development and implementation. Representatives of the Macedonian Stock Exchange were actively involved in this project.

2000

The Board of Directors of the Macedonian Stock Exchange for­mally adopted the initiative to introduce an electronic trading system and the activities for realization of this initiative went on during the year. The Annual Assembly of FEAS whose host was the Macedonian Stock Exchange took place in September in Skopje. A contract was signed with the Ljubljana Stock-Exchange and the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of the Republic of Slovenia for the use of technical assistance for the Ljubljana Stock Exchange electronic trading system implementation in Macedonia.

2001

The Exchange increased the number of trading days in a week, from two to three trading days. The trading on the stock exchange floor stopped and the electronic trading of securities started using the new “Bourse Electronic System of Trading” (BEST). A Memorandum of Understanding with the Ljubljana Stock Exchange was signed. The changes in the Securities Law were adopted, with which the Exchange was transformed into a for profit joint-stock company. The first official stock exchange index – the Macedonian Bourse Index (MBI) was promoted. The long-awaited process of complete dematerialization of shares in more than 670 companies in the country and the operation of the Central Securities Deposi­tory had begun.

2002

The Takeover Law, the missing link in the chain of securities legislation in the Republic of Macedonia was adopted. The number of trading days was increased to four days of the week, Monday to Thursday. The Memorandum of Understanding with the Athens Stock Exchange was signed. Price limitations were introduced for the listed securities on the Official Mar­ket from +/-10% of their last official average price. The first issue of denationalization bonds of the Republic of Macedonia was listed.

2003

In 2003 the Macedonian Stock Exchange signed Memorandums of Understanding with the stock exchanges in Belgrade, Zagreb and Sofia. The new Internet portal of the stock exchanges in Southeast Europe was promoted, of which the Macedonian Stock Exchange was one of the main initiators. It is thought that the strong growth of turnover of the Macedonian Stock Exchange in the period that followed is greatly owed to the joining of the Exchange in this project.

2004

A third issue of denationalization bonds of the Republic of Macedonia was listed.The new Listing Rules entered into effect. The listing criteria on the Official Market were raised to a higher level, the Unofficial Mar­ket was split into two parts – Market for Publicly Held Companies and a Free Market, the criteria for shares listing were toughened, and new continuous obligations for reporting were introduced (submitting of a three-month cumulative unaudited Income Statements, publication of a dividend calendar and notification of large owners). The Stock-Exchange issued the electronic publication “Facts on listed companies” for the first time. Publication of the new Exchange index was announced (MBI-10).

2005

The tenth memorial year of the operation of the Macedonian Stock Exchange was the most success­ful year since it was founded. The Macedonian Stock-Exchange was accepted as a corresponding member of the Federation of Euro­pean Stock Exchanges (FESE). A software application called SEI-NET was introduced, as the official and only way of delivering informa­tion from the listed companies to the Exchange. The new Securities Law was passed, with which a further harmonization of the regulation in the securities industry with the EU Directives and the principles of IOSCO was made.

2006

The main characteristic of the year 2006 was entrance of capital inflow from regional investors into Macedonian capital market. Two private pension funds appear at the domestic market as new institutional investors. In 2006, state owned company for electricity supply and distribution “ESM” was privatized by selling certain percentage of their capital to foreign investor. During the year, the state presence on the securities market was considerable, due to the selling state owned capital in many joint stock companies among which the most significant was Macedonian Telecommunication AD Skopje and few more listed companies. In June 2006, Corporate Governance Code for listed companies on the Exchange was adopted. In September 2006, cooperation between Macedonian Stock Exchange and Wiener Bourse was strengthened by signing Memorandum of cooperation.

2007

This year was the most successful since the foundation of MSE back in 1996. The MSE realized record turnover of 682 million euros and MBI 10 index achieved its biggest value breaking the barrier of 10.000 index points. During the year several successful takeovers were realized, particularly in the banking sector. In the first quarter, new set of MSE regulations arising from the Securities Law entered into power. On October 15^th MSE officially moved in its new business premises. In the last quarter of the year, the web magazine MB Monitor as a source of information and news from the worldwide and regional capital markets was promoted. Also, there was promotion on the Manual for corporate governance of the Macedonian companies, the first ever published manual of this kind. One of the most important events for the year 2007 was signing the Memorandum of partnership between the exchanges in Belgrade, Skopje, Zagreb and Ljubljana. The partnership primarily aims to contribute towards further develop the regional and national markets and thus serve the needs of major regional and international market players.

2012

The Macedonian Stock Exchange, in the framework of its continuous effort to further development of the Macedonian securities market, establishes a Тraining centre, aimed at strengthening the capacities of the existing and potential market participants in trading with securities, financial instruments and other relevant financial topics.

2013

In 2013, a new market sub-segment was introduced on the official market of the Stock Exchange – “Mandatory listing”. At the end of 2013, 116 joint stock companies were listed on the official market of the Stock Exchange, whose market capitalization reached 1.6 billions euros.

2016

The central event of the conference in 2016 was launching of the regional platform SEE Link, through which the Bulgarian, Zagreb and Macedonian Stock Exchange were connected, supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The system aims to increase liquidity and improve the access of investors and local brokers.

Board of Directors

The MSE is organized as a joint-stock company with one-tier management. The Board of Directors is composed of 8 members, 7 non-executive members and 1 executive member.

Organizational Structure