The agenda for a May 17 general meeting of shareholders of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) features a proposal to raise the capital of the bourse from BGN 293,393 to BGN 3,227,323 with reserves. The 2004 profit will be used to offset outstanding losses dating back from 2001 and to fill the reserve fund. The BSE is 44% state-owned by the finance ministry. The other BSE shareholders are banks, investment companies and individuals. Another item on the agenda of the upcoming general meeting is the co-creation with the Central Depository AD - the only organisation in Bulgaria providing settlement of corporate securities in book-entry form - of a limited liability company to design, develop and provide maintenance services for securities market-related products. The new company will have a capital of BGN 80,000 with equal split of the equity between the two owners. The MPs okayed tentatively last week a bill amending the Public Offering of Securities Act, scrapping BSE and the Central Depository from the privatisation blacklist which means that the state-owned equity in either company immediately goes up for sale but after the bill is enacted. The privatisation format and the eligible means of payment for the BSE sell-off will be determined by the Privatisation Agency after the mid-year parliamentary elections.