The new owner of the Budapest Stock Exchange replaces both management and strategy. By Gabriella Kopházi-Tóth, Senior Relationship Manager, GSS Hungary
An Extraordinary General Meeting at the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE), held on 16 December, concluded the acquisition of 68.8% of the BSE’s ownership shares from Austrian CEESEG AG and Österreichische Kontrollbank AG (OeKB), thereby increasing the Central Bank of Hungary’s (CBH) stake to 75.8%.
In the course of the Extraordinary General Meeting the shareholders elected a new management: Márton Nagy was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors and Ferenc Gerhardt Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Richárd Végh has been Chief Executive Officer of the Budapest Stock Exchange since of 1 January 2016.
With the acquisition, the CBH targets the development of the national capital market. The new strategy of the BSE will be elaborated on by end of February 2016.
The strategy’s main pillars - as already published earlier - are:
- strategic innovations
- various incentives for investors and domestic issuers
- creation of new sections and services at the BSE, e.g. for mid-size companies
- strengthening the BSE's global relations.
By completing the acquisition, the Central Bank of Hungary obtained a controlling stake in the Budapest Stock Exchange, which supports its strategic goals to materialise. With the aim of cooperating with market participants, a Stock Exchange Advisory Board has been established. It is headed by Mihály Patai, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of UniCredit Bank Hungary.
The new management foresees to significantly raise the market capitalisation of the BSE (from 18% to 30% of the Hungarian GDP) by attracting new issuers, even small and medium sized companies, to the Stock Exchange. It envisages at least five new issuers on the BSE per year.