site.btaAdopting Euro Will Attract More Investors in Bulgarian Public Companies - Caroline von Linsingen of Deutsche Boerse Group

Caroline von Linsingen, Head of IPO & Growth Financing at Deutsche Boerse Group believes that the adoption of the euro will be a big game changer for Bulgaria. Adopting the euro will make it much more easier for investors to compare peers and this will attract more investors to Bulgarian companies as a lot of institutional and retail investors are looking to diversify their portfolios beyond Western Europe, she told BTA. 

She believes that the Eurobridge project of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) and Deutsche Borse for dual listing on the markets in Bulgarian and Germany, has been "very, very successful". What can such an instrument bring to the Bulgarian companies? 

She mentioned as an example the Bulgarian tech company Shelly Group whose shares are traded on both markets and whose capitalization has tripled in the past year and a half.

Caroline von Linsingen said that another five Bulgarian companies are interested in being listed in Sofia and Frankfurt.

Following is the full interview:

How would the adoption of the euro affect the Bulgarian capital market in your opinion? 

We hope that it will be a very big game changer for Bulgaria. Certainly, we are very excited about it because we think that you have great companies in your country. 

We also know of a couple of companies that are interested or looking into being listed on exchange and obviously we would be very much interested if these companies were to do a list with us. 

Now, given that there's a lot of attention on Bulgaria at the moment and given that we see that a lot of institutional investors, but also retail investors, are looking to diversify their portfolio, they not only always want to look into what is happening in Western Europe, but obviously they want to understand who are the champions outside of Western Europe, who's really running the game in Central and Eastern Europe? 

And this is where we come in, because the euro will make it much more easier to compare peers, to really see what it is that you have to offer, that your companies have to offer. 

And by introducing the euro, this will facilitate this comparison, and it will attract more investors to actually also invest then into your Bulgarian companies. 

Do you think that the Bulgarian stock exchange may experience difficulties in transitioning to the euro?

I think that this is something that I cannot comment on. I wouldn't know. I guess it depends very much on your preparation. But the thing is it will make it way more easier for global investors to understand your companies, to understand the valuation, and it will make it more attractive. 

It will make your market and it will make your companies more attractive from an outside perspective. 

For about a year and a half, the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) has got a segment – Eurobridge, created through cooperation with Deutsche Borse, which represents a procedure for dual listing on the markets in Bulgarian and Germany. What can such an instrument bring to the Bulgarian companies? 

What we are doing is that we are providing a bridge between Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe. And I think what the advantage is that companies, and now there are actually two ways to do it. Either you do a list from the beginning on, or you do your first listing steps in your home market, and then once you're ready to go, then you do a dual listing with Deutsche Borse which will then give you access to global investors and more liquidity and visibility. 

Now, especially if we take a look at Shelly Group, simply because they have been listed with us since 2024, and this is really, I think, where numbers speak. 

What we see that it was an incredible success. So when they dual listed on Xetra in late April 2024, their market capitalization stood at roughly EUR 300 million. Now today in November 2025, it is close to 1 billion. So it tripled market capitalization. And also what is very important is that after the dual listing, trading volumes rose on both venues. 

So we are not thinking that maybe Deutsche Boerse took away trading volume from the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, it was actually quite the opposite, that turnover doubled on Deutsche Boerse at the same time that trading volumes were also growing on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. And with this increased visibility, what we also see that trading volumes actually sometimes surpass trading governments on BSE sometimes surpass those on Deutsche Boerse for example, in September, I think there was nearly EUR 14 million traded in one month in Shelly Group on BSE, and usually it's roughly about 5 million per month on Deutsche Boerse. So, we see it as a great success. 

It really gives companies more visibility. 

Why did you decide to work with the Bulgarian Stock Exchange? How many stock exchanges do you have similar cooperation with, like the one with the BSE?

You know what? It's actually our pilot that we are doing. 

And it is something where we really said we want to work with a dynamic local exchange. And it was actually the idea of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange to try this out. It was very, very successful. 

This afternoon, I'm flying out to Sofia. There will be a big conference tomorrow. And we are going to speak to another five companies that are interested to join Eurobridge at the moment. 

And so I think it is a great success. And what we bring to the table as Deutsche Borse is that we operate here this great trading floor. We are known for giving visibilities to our listed companies and what BSE brings to the table is that they're really dynamic, that you have a lot of great and super interesting companies and so obviously we would be very much interested in dual listing them.