The Budapest Stock Exchange steps onto the trading floor
In June 2023, on the 33rd anniversary of its re-establishment, the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) entered the Standard category of the Stock Exchange. The entry to the public market was accompanied by the opening bell and a formal ceremony which prominent government and financial infrastructure leaders attended.
A total of 5.4 million dematerialized registered ordinary shares of BSE with a nominal value of HUF 100 each and a total nominal value of HUF 541.3 million were listed on the Standard Market of the regulated market of the Stock Exchange in the form of a technical listing.
The entry of the Budapest Stock Exchange into the stock market is in line with the strategy of the Central Bank of Hungary (CBH), the majority shareholder, developing the domestic capital market, providing a long-term sustainable operating environment that supports value creation for the central player of the domestic capital market, and also supports the efforts CBH to attract new investors to the stock market. The current technical listing can be seen as a first step in this process, as it creates the opportunity for a subsequent private or public sale of shares.
For BSE, the period of preparation for listing has not been without its challenges, as the past few years have been marked by great economic uncertainty, first with the pandemic and then with the outbreak of war last year. In the coming period, the BSE intends to continue its efforts to develop the domestic capital market, which it has already begun and which it set out in its strategy for the period 2021-2025, published in 2021. The BSE's goal remains to increase the role of capital markets in Hungary and to support the growth and competitiveness of companies, taking into account sustainability aspects, thus ensuring the prosperity of Hungarian households.
