Wiener Börse And Regional Investors Acquire Stake In Budapest Stock Exchange

• Start of a sustainable, forward-looking and co-operative capital market venture by Vienna and Budapest with the backing of a group of Austrian investors
• Wiener Börse acquires 14 percent of Budapest Stock Exchange
• BA-CA subsidiary HVB Bank Hungary increased investment to 25 percent
• OeKB, Erste Bank and RZB also acquire stakes in the Budapest Stock Exchange

Wiener Börse acquired a stake of 14 percent in the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE). In the same move, HVB Bank Hungary, which is the Hungarian subsidiary of Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA), increased its current share from 12.7 percent to 25.2 percent, while Erste Bank raised the share from 5.8 percent to 12.2 percent. Oesterreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB) acquired 11 percent and RZB 6.4 percent. The transaction was initiated by HVB Bank Hungary and completed jointly with Wiener Börse AG. CA IB Corporate Finance acted as advisor.

The group of investors is interested in a successful, sustainable and highly profitable development of the independent Hungarian capital market. The goal is to secure and expand the business and earnings base of the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) as well as that of the central Hungarian securities clearing agent KELER over the long term. This move is an upgrade of the Hungarian and Austrian capital markets and is designed to capture the domestic potentials of both markets through joint marketing activities and a reinforcement of their common position especially before the backdrop of the current and future EU enlargement in Central Europe, and will help the exchanges to exploit the growth opportunities of the regional capital market.