Wiener Börse added the 50th company to the prime market today. The company, Eco Business-Immobilien AG, which has been listed in the segment standard market auction since March 2005, now meets all of the criteria for switching to the premium segment of Wiener Börse. Companies are required to meet more stringent criteria for inclusion in the prime market. These criteria include, for example, sufficient free float, quicker disclosure of financial information and the support of a specialist for continuous trading. In the past few years, companies have been rewarded for their effort: Since the start of the segment on 1 January 2002 with 40 companies, the index of the premium segment, the ATXPrime, has gained 297%.
“In the past years, Wiener Börse has succeeded in steadily increasing the value of the Austrian capital market and we will continue to focus our work on this goal in the future as well,” stressed Heinrich Schaller, member of the Management Board of Wiener Börse AG. In the future, the upgrading of listings from the segments standard market auction and standard market continuous to the prime market will play a significant role. “The switch to a higher segment does not only heighten the value of the Austrian capital market, but also has a number of benefits for the companies,” Mr. Schaller’s is convinced. “The heightened attention of investors and analysts translates into improved liquidity, higher demand and thus higher stock prices, which in turn increases the market value of the company.”
As an example of a particularly successful switch of listing segment Mr. Schaller mentioned the company Hirsch Servo AG, which was transferred to the ATXPrime as of 23 October 2006. Ever since, the stock has performed very impressively and with a gain of 144% joined the group of top performers last year.
ECO Business-Immobilien AG is a real estate company that invests exclusively in commercial real estate with a focus on specialized supermarkets and shopping centres, self-service markets and office space. The business field of ECO includes long-term investments in nearly fully developed real estate property as well as the professional and active management of real estate.
Wiener Börse (the Vienna Stock Exchange) is the leading regional exchange in Central Europe and plays a pivotal role in the Austrian Capital market. Founded in 1771, Wiener Börse is one of the world’s oldest exchanges. The core business of Wiener Börse is to operate cash market trading (equity market, bond market) and a derivatives market as well as trading in structured products. In 2006, the ATX, the leading index of Wiener Börse, advanced by 21.7% and closed at an all time high of 4463.47 points (last trading day 2006).
Wiener Börse has acquired stakes in the Budapest Stock Exchange and has entered into cooperation agreements with the stock exchanges of Bucharest, Shanghai, Dubai, Zagreb, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Sofia, Montenegro, Banja Luka and Macedonia.
