Premia Finanzaria starts trading on ATS platform in Bucharest

Italy’s Premia Finanzaria, a broker of financial products, has started on Wednesday trading on the alternative trading system (ATS) of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) and is seeking to become a non-banking financial institution (IFN) on the local market.

Federico Salmoiraghi, country manager of Fla consultancy, which assisted the listing, said the Catania-based company aims to enter the regulated market on the BVB by 2016, through a capital increase.

The company has two shareholders and a stake up to 10 percent will be gradually floated in Bucharest, according to Salmoiraghi.

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“We believe the credit brokerage market will develop extensively in the coming years and we want to take part in this development,” said Salmoiraghi.

Representatives of the company said the volumes of loans brokered in Romania stands at 4.2 percent, while in Eastern Europe it hovers around 20 percent, with the exception of Poland with 30 percent. Meanwhile, this figure climbs to 70 percent in Western Europe.

Lucian Anghel, president of the board at BVB, said listing on the ATS costs only a “few thousand euros”, compared to costs which can reach half a million euros in Italy.

The company wants to offer backed loans worth EUR 2.5 million as IFN in the coming three years, setting interest rates below the market average. The loans will be backed by wages, pensions or through credits that will be paid by employers, which will funnel directly to Premia Finanzaria up to 50 percent of the wage of employees that are customers of the broker. 

The company is currently in talks with two top ten credit brokers for a strategic partnership, which may include acquisitions, according to Salmoiraghi.

Premia Finanzaria was set up in 2007 in operates mainly in Sicily and Catania. It reported revenues of around EUR 1.45 million last year and a profit over EUR 36,000.

Ovidiu Posirca