15 jan 2016

Today was held an official ceremony at the head-quarter of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), Sofia. The Deputy Minister of Finance Ms. Karina Karaivanova bestowed Sirma Group Holding a prize of BSE - "The issuer with most substantial contribution to Bulgarian capital market development for 2015."

The prize was welcomed personally by Georgi Marinov - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sirma Group Holding, CEO and Chairman of the Board of EngVew Systems Plc. "We are proud with this accolade, which is an acknowledgement of our hard work, and achievements of the biggest Bulgarian software group. I hope our example will encourage other IT companies to seek new opportunities in order to accelerate their business development, while emerging on the stock exchange, "said Georgi Marinov.

The second prize - Special Award "Deal of the Year" was awarded to both companies - ELANA Financial Holding and Sirma Group Holding at the ceremony of 2015 Forbes Business Awards. Top managers of Bulgarian IT industry attended the event. The sector is recognised as one of the fastest growing and most profitable business in the country.

The prestigious Forbes award was received by Kamen Kolchev, CEO of ELANA Financial Holding. "Forbes really surprised us and we are delighted to get the prize together with Sirma Group Holding. This is recognition of the jury, which believes in the future of the capital market in Bulgaria. During the ceremony many people talked about the need to be proactive and why we should not wait for things to happen by chance. I express enormous gratitude of Sirma Group Holding about the courage to approach the local stock market and explore its opportunities.

The capital market is a place for people with ideas, with a „can and do“ attitude, where you can get an impartial assessment of good ideas and good business. Sirma paved the path", added Kamen Kolchev.

The anticipations of financial analysts for 2016 about the development of the Bulgarian capital market are optimistic. The success of Sirma's IPO is considered as a trigger of the process and is expected to increase the interest of other companies, hence, the investors can enjoy new blue-chip issuers in the stock marketplace.