The Vienna Stock Exchange is delighted to announce that the Czech National Bank (?eská Národní Banka) has granted its approval of the acquisition of the 92.4% stake in the Prague Stock Exchange notified by the exchange operating company, Wiener Börse AG, on 7 November 2008.
"We welcome the rapid approval of the Czech authorities. This means that we can quickly start implementing our measures to strengthen the Czech capital market further," explained Michael Buhl, CEO of Wiener Börse AG. Mr. Buhl stated the connection of the Prague Stock Exchange to the data vending network of the Vienna Stock Exchange (Budapest, Bucharest, Sarajevo and Banja Luka) as one of the effective measure that can be realized quickly.
With the approval of the acquisition of the 92.4% stake in the Prague Stock Exchange, the Vienna Stock Exchange is now a majority shareholder in three Central and Eastern European exchanges. Together with Oesterreichische Kontrollbank, the Vienna Stock Exchange holds 68.8% of shares in the Budapest Stock Exchange, and in June of this year, it bought a majority stake of 81.01% in the Ljubljana Sock Exchange. Furthermore, the exchange also closely cooperates - without any cross-holdings - with many stock exchanges in the region, above all, with Bucharest, Sarajevo and Banja Luka.