The Role Of The Bucharest Stock Exchange In Financing Smes: Post-Ipo Evolution

This paper assesses whether listing on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) enhances capital accessibility and performance for Romanian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We examine three companies that went public on BVB’s AeRO market between 2020 and 2021— Safetech Innovations (cybersecurity), MAM Bricolaj (homeimprovement retail), and 2Performant (digital marketing)—using a three-point panel centred on each IPO: one fiscal year before the IPO, the IPO year, and the first few fiscal years following the IPO. Drawing solely on public information (prospectuses, annual and interim reports, current reports) and exchange communications, we track changes in income and profit around the listing event and interpret the patterns through established SME finance theories. Three findings emerge. First, listing is associated with top-line expansion across all three firms in the year after the IPO. Second, profitability responses vary by sector: the technology name with scalable revenue (Safetech) shows clear post-IPO profit improvements. At the same time, the retailer (MAM) experiences margin compression and the digital platform (2Performant) records a post-IPO loss despite revenue growth. Third, these trajectories are consistent with pecking-order and credit-rationing mechanisms, as well as with the view that market design and governance discipline matter for how SME IPOs translate into performance. Policy implications follow for supervisors, the exchange, and SME managers.