Brussels Approves Stock Exchange Alliance Vienna - Budapest

On Tuesday, the EU competition authority in Brussels granted the long-awaited approval of the acquisition of a majority stake in the Budapest Stock Exchange by a consortium of Austrian and Hungarian investors under the lead of Wiener Börse and HVB Bank Hungary in May 2004. "The approval from Brussels is a major milestone and a clear commitment to the goal of creating harmonised and efficient capital markets in Europe of the regions", said Dr. Stefan Zapotocky, Member of the Management Board of Wiener Börse AG, expressing his great satisfaction with the news from Brussels. "We believe that this decision confirms that we are on the right path with our strategy and we are very pleased to be able to continue at a faster pace with the realisation of the project that will benefit all parties: issuers, members, investors and the entire region."

Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy, Chairman of the Budapest Stock Exchange added: "Today's decision is a boost for the entire Central European capital market and confirmation of our cooperation based on a solid partnership. We are very happy with the recognition from Brussels."

As a measure to strengthen the position of the two exchanges, a bundle of joint activities have been developed that are designed to turn the two exchanges into internationally successful and well-established capital markets. Short term – as early this year – the package of cooperation measures that can be realised include closer collaboration with respect to data vending, the harmonisation of the financial reporting systems of the two companies, and an examination of the harmonisation potentials with respect to corporate governance codes.

Over the medium to long term, the aim is to achieve a uniform set of rules for listing procedures and the linkage of members as well as the creation of an efficient network structure through the harmonization of the system connections. The details of the planned measures will be presented on 26 April 2005 at a press conference in Budapest.

Wiener Börse owns a 14% stake in the Budapest Stock Exchange. HVB Bank Hungary, a subsidiary of BA-CA, owns 25.2%, with Erste Bank holding 12.2%, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank 11% and Raiffeisen Zentralbank approximately 6.4%. The Austrian partners own a majority stake totaling approximately 68.8%.