Wiener Börse Launches Cooperation With Bulgarian Stock Exchange

Wiener Börse has a strong position in Southeast Europe: Following the cooperation agreements with the exchanges in Bucharest, Zagreb, Belgrade and Sarajevo, Wiener Börse signed today a memorandum of understanding with the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. The aim of the two exchanges is to cooperate in the area of indices and data dissemination. Additionally, the exchanges will also work together in the joint development and introduction of products.

"The Bulgarian Stock Exchange has an enormous potential. We are looking forward to and are very excited about our new cooperation partner," said Michael Buhl, member of the management board of Wiener Börse at the time of signing the agreement in Sofia.

Bistra Ilkova, Chief Executive Officer of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, is also very pleased about the cooperation with Wiener Börse: "This is an important event in the relations between the two exchanges and I am convinced that our co-operation will become even more fruitful, especially in view of Bulgaria’s EU membership and the consolidation process that is taking place in Europe in the capital markets sector."

Like all stock markets in Southeast Europe, the exchange in Sofia is developing very dynamically: Since 2002, market capitalization has risen steeply and at the end of 2005 it was EUR 4.2bn (Wiener Börse: EUR 107.1bn). The average daily trading volumes have climbed a hundredfold in the past few years and hit EUR 4mn by year-end 2005 (Wiener Börse: EUR 342mn).