(Vienna/Zagreb) The Managing Director of the Zagreb Stock Exchange, Marinko Papuga, and Michael Buhl, Member of the Management Board of Wiener Börse, signed a cooperation agreement this afternoon in Zagreb. The objective of the "Memorandum of Understanding" is to enable closer cooperation between the two exchanges, for example, in areas such as new product trading, exchange of practices regarding market reporting, surveillance and listing, as well as regional market promotion. In the area of index management, the intention is to start working together in 2006. "Wiener Börse is an important partner for our efforts to gain a foothold in Central Europe. This agreement forms the foundation of a long-term partnership", said Marinko Papuga, Member of the Management Board of the Zagreb Stock Exchange.
"This cooperation agreement with the Zagreb Stock Exchange brings us one step closer to the common goal of building a strong Central European capital market," stressed Michael Buhl. Mr. Buhl is especially pleased that Wiener Börse has once again been able to offer index know-how. "Eastern European indices have a long tradition at Wiener Börse and are well known far beyond our borders. The excellent quality of the indices attracts international attention: At the end of 2004, the number of international issuers was 35; today, the number is over 70," said Mr. Buhl. Among the latest East European indices calculated by Wiener Börse, are the ROTX, which was developed jointly with the Bucharest Stock Exchange in the spring of 2005, and the NTX, which was developed in cooperation with Erste Bank in September of this year.
The Zagreb Stock Exchange is one of the larger South-East European exchanges with a market capitalization slightly above that of Ljubljana SE and slightly smaller than Bucharest. Market capitalization in stocks was EUR 10.80bn at the end of October (Wiener Börse: EUR 98.31bn), and the average daily turnover in stocks was around EUR 2.9mn (Wiener Börse: approx. EUR 500mn). CROBEX, the leading index of the Zagreb Stock Exchange has risen by about 30% since the beginning of the year (ATX: + 35%).