Digitization gains ground at the Bucharest Stock Exchange

More and more companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) choose to move the voting for General Shareholders’ Meetings online. After OMV Petrom, the largest company listed on BSE, introduced the online voting system developed by the Romanian application eVOTE in April 2023, another important company announces the digitization of voting.

Purcari Wineries PLC, one of the largest wine and brandy producers in Central and Eastern Europe, is implementing the eVOTE online voting system for the General Shareholders’ Meeting scheduled on May 26, 2023. Shareholders have been invited to register and vote through this platform.

eVOTE, one of the newest companies in the Romanian Fintech sector, is the developer of the first online and physical participation system for general shareholders’ meetings in Romania. The company announces the implementation of the eVOTE system for electronic registration of votes received before and during the Purcari Wineries General Shareholders’ Meeting scheduled on May 26, 2023.

Shareholders who have held Purcari Wineries shares by May 12, 2023, are invited by the company to access wine.evote.ro to register and vote. Online voting through the eVOTE solution will also be available live during the General Shareholders’ Meeting.

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“In 2022, at the start of the collaboration between eVOTE and the Bucharest Stock Exchange through the Central Depository, which facilitates participation and voting at general shareholders’ meetings, the Romanian capital market took a significant step towards digitizing the solutions offered to shareholders of listed companies. The solution we are developing leads to increased transparency and good corporate governance of public companies, offering shareholders the opportunity to be involved in the decision-making process. We are glad to start collaborating with Purcari Wineries, a company committed to providing investors, regardless of their type and size, with digital solutions designed to simplify the processes of participation and voting in important moments of the company’s life,” says Mihai Chișu, co-founder and CEO of eVOTE.

The digitization of Purcari Wineries’ General Shareholders’ Meetings will offer its shareholders the opportunity to interact directly with the Board of Directors and the Purcari Board, ask questions, receive real-time answers, and actively engage in setting the company’s strategic directions. Shareholders can go through the identification process provided by the Central Depository at onlineservices.roclear.ro and can use this unique identification in the future for all listed companies that are using eVOTE services.

Purcari Wineries Group is one of the leading wine and brandy producers in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region. The group manages approximately 1,450 hectares of vineyards and operates five production platforms in Romania, Moldova, and Bulgaria, four of which are dedicated to wine production using grapes from their own vineyards and third-party suppliers, and one is dedicated to brandy production. The group has been listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange since 2018 under the symbol WINE.

Listed companies using the online voting solution

Currently, the eVOTE solution is used by 27 companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange: 2Performant, Agroland Agribusiness, Agroland Business System, Arctic Stream, AROBS, Bento, Bittnet, Bucur Obor, Bucharest Stock Exchange, Chromosome Dynamics, Connections Consult, Dr. Fischer Dental, Fondul Proprietatea, MAM Bricolaj, Meta Estate Trust, Norofert, OMV Petrom, One United Properties, Purcari Wineries, Roca Industry, Safetech Innovations, Simtel, Softbinator Technologies, Sphera Franchise Group, Teraplast, and Transport Trade Services.

By using eVOTE, companies increase their operational efficiency, reduce costs, and improve communication with shareholders, who no longer have to cast their votes on paper or, in the case of postal voting, spend time going to the post office. The absence of human errors in vote counting and achieving the quorum is another benefit of adopting the online voting system. Shareholders can vote from home, from the office or meeting room, using their mobile or desktop devices, and the voting process takes less than 1 minute.

eVOTE is an application developed by three Romanian entrepreneurs, specialists in the capital market and IT field – Mihai Chișu, Bogdan Iliescu, and Ionuț Albu. Through eVOTE, shareholders of a company listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange can participate and vote online, as well as physically attend the General Shareholders’ Meetings. The application is continuously developed, transformed, and improved to be user-friendly for all types of shareholders. Currently, the eVOTE team is working on improving the mobile version of the application, considering the potential listing of Hidroelectrica, an event that could generate a much larger number of eVOTE users.