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2013-04-10 00:00:00
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The Warsaw bourse has held preliminary talks with the Vienna Stock Exchange on a potential merger with an aim to create a regional hub for share trading in central and eastern Europe, several news agencies reported quoting sources familiar with the deal.
A combination of the two would bring together Central Europe's two biggest exchanges by the value of their listed companies. "Some talks were held. But these are very preliminary and may not necessarily lead to a deal," the sources said.
Michael Buhl, CEO of CEE Stock Exchange Group, the Wiener Börse’s parent company, will meet with WSE new CEO Adam Maciejewski in Warsaw in coming days, Beatrix Exinger, a spokeswoman for the Austrian operator said. She added that the CEE Stock Exchange Group is interested in cooperating with the Warsaw bourse but declined to elaborate.
The talks come after years of rivalry between the two bourses for influence in the central and eastern Europe.
Vienna expanded by buying the exchanges in Ljubljana and Prague in 2008 and Budapest in 2004, beating Warsaw’s bid for Prague.
Warsaw has overtaken its Austrian rival as the region's top exchange by the value of its listed stocks thanks to the flotation of several large state enterprises and a wave of foreign listings, especially from neighboring Ukraine.
“Creating one hub for the region would be a great opportunity for the company to grab investors’ interest more efficiently than now,” said Piotr Palenik, a Warsaw-based analyst at ING Securities SA. “The key point is where the decision center would be located after a merger. Market dynamics are in favor of Warsaw, and the company should use this argument to be in charge of the unified platform for the region.”
"We are ready to seriously consider joining with pan-European consolidation process. In the future we want to have a partner from the region, from Europe. As far as today's information, I am not in a position to comment on it." Warsaw Stock Exchange Deputy CEO Beata Jarosz said during a panel discussion on Polish capital markets in London.
“This could be an interesting idea,” Polish Deputy Treasury Minister Pawel Tamborski said, when asked about merger talks. “I don’t have any specifics. I know too little about it now.”
The WSE is 35% owned by the Polish government. "At some time in the future ... we will sell. We will fully privatize Warsaw Stock Exchange," Tamborski told the London event. "When? How? These are very good questions, we still have all options open."
Tamborski added that Warsaw also wants to retain influence on the WSE to oversee the development of both the bourse and the country's capital markets.
Source:http://www.warsawvoice.pl
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