♦ Unlike an executive director’s salary, the dividend is remuneration without conditions: the founders can do with this money what they see fit ♦ These are known dividend collections because they are listed companies ♦ The largest amount goes to Horia Ciorcilă from Banca Transilvania, about 65 million lei, followed by the Timiş family from Cris-Tim, with 50.7 million, and Zoltan Teszari from Digi, with over 30 million. ♦ BSE companies offer some of the highest dividend yields in Europe, but liquidity continues to fall well below the level of Western European markets or even the neighbors in the region ♦ However, continued listings and international promotion of the stock exchange could turn high dividend yields into a genuine argument for international investors. The founders and reference shareholders of the largest entrepreneurial companies in the structure of the main BET index of the Bucharest Stock Exchange will receive this season dividends of around 200 million lei, amounts that come from companies in various sectors: banking, telecommunications, food production, real estate, logistics, restaurants and construction materials, according to the calculations made by ZF. Listing on the stock exchange does not only mean that the founders can sell shares more easily or that they have a visible market price, but it also means that they are obliged to periodically report financial results, submit important decisions to the vote of shareholders and respect standards of transparency that a private company does not have. Instead, access to capital becomes wider – either through new share issues, through bonds, or simply through the additional credibility conferred by the status of a listed issuer. You may also be interested: Another effect is that dividend distributions do not reach only the founders. Tens of thousands of individual and institutional investors – including the Pilon II pension funds, which manage the savings of millions of Romanians – also benefit from these payments. The more performing companies are listed and distribute dividends, the more concrete options the local investor base has. Horia Ciorcilă, the president of the board of directors of Banca Transilvania, will collect the largest amount on the list – about 65 million lei. He owns 4.66% of the bank’s share capital, directly and through BT Castorius Limited, which means more than 50 million shares. On April 28, TLV shareholders approved a gross dividend of approximately 1.28 lei per share, out of a net profit of 4.09 billion lei in 2025. The total amount allocated to dividends is 1.4 billion lei; the rest of the distributable profit will go to reserves. Ciorcilă built the bank in 1994, together with 12 other businessmen from Cluj-Napoca; in 1997, BT became the first bank in Romania listed on the stock exchange. Since then, growth has combined expansion with acquisitions – Volksbank Romania, Bancpost, OTP Bank Romania, BRD Pensii – and today TLV has assets of 224 billion lei.
Horia Ciorcilă, president of the board of directors, Banca Transilvania The Timiş family will receive 50.7 million lei through Rangeglow Limited, the vehicle through which Radu and Cristina Timiş hold shares in Cris-Tim Family Holding. The company will allocate total dividends of 77.6 million lei at the end of June. The two started the business in 1992 with a 12 square meter kiosk and $700 in initial capital; today, Cris-Tim has revenues of over 1 billion lei. The listing last fall also opened access to resources for an investment plan of 890 million lei until 2030. Investors in the IPO now have a yield of 65%, the shares rising from 16.5 lei to 27.2 lei.
Radu and Cristina Timiş, founders, Cris-Tim Zoltan Teszari, the founder of Digi Communications, owns over 60 million shares – most of them through RCS Management SA – and will collect over 30 million lei on July 24, when the company distributes a gross dividend of 0.5 lei per unit. Teszari built Digi over three decades, starting from TVS Holding Braşov in 1992. DIGI shares have increased by 105% in the last 12 months, bringing the company’s capitalization to around 14 billion lei. At One United Properties, founders Liviu Diaconescu and Victor Căpitanu will each receive 12.4 million lei through OA Liviu Holding and Vinci Ver Holding, respectively. The gross dividend is 0.44 lei per share, payment starting on June 5. The two started in investment banking and founded One United in 2005; the company listed in 2021, and ONE shares have climbed 50% in the past 12 months.
Liviu Diaconescu (right) and Victor Căpitanu, founders, One United Properties Radu Dimofte will get almost 20 million lei from Sphera Franchise Group, where he holds a total of almost 47% of the capital through Shaletia Ventures Nicosia and Wellkept Group Bucharest. Nicolae Badea, with 20.6% of Sphera through Computerland Romania, will collect 8.4 million lei. The gross dividend approved on April 30 is 1.06 lei per share, paid on June 10. Sphera operates over 175 KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants in Romania, the Republic of Moldova and Italy. Dorel Goia, the majority shareholder of TeraPlast Bistrita, will become 2.4 million lei richer on June 5, when the construction materials producer pays a gross dividend of 0.0017 lei per share. Goia owns 1.4 billion TRP shares and leads a group with a 130-year history, now present in several European markets. At Aquila Part Prod, the distribution and logistics group founded in 1994 and listed in 2021, entrepreneurs Constantin Vasile and Alin Dociu will together collect 7.6 million lei through a gross dividend of 0.01455 lei per unit, distributed in October. The two reorganized their shareholding structure last fall, moving blocks of shares from direct personal ownership to the offshore vehicles Vmark Limited and Naparke Limited, registered in Cyprus; the final beneficiaries remained the same.
Alexandru Mihăilescu, the founder of Transport Trade Services, will receive 3.4 million lei on June 15, when the river transport company distributes a gross dividend of 0.075 lei per unit. He owns 25.3% of TTS, a company he founded in 1997 and which today has a capitalization of 1 billion lei. Unlike an executive director’s salary, which comes with contractual obligations and public visibility, the dividend is remuneration without conditions. The founders can do with this money what they see fit – a vacation, an apartment, a package of shares in another company or the initial capital for a new business. Not a few of the entrepreneurs listed on the BSE have used the liquidity brought by dividends or partial sales of shares precisely to diversify: real estate investments, participations in startups or expansion in businesses from completely different sectors.
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