(Vienna) "Our positioning is excellent! Companies heeded our appeal and raised a record volume of EUR 6.4bn last year through the Austrian capital market", said Dr. Stefan Zapotocky, Member of the Management Board of Wiener Börse AG. According to Mr. Zapotocky, who after six years on the management board is leaving in the coming months to start his own business, Wiener Börse has developed into an internationally recognized financial marketplace.
Now, we need to attract domestic investors to Austria’s capital market. Our work for the year 2006 will be dedicated specifically to Austrian investors. Dr. Michael Buhl, member of the Management Board of Wiener Börse, firmly believes that "A successful capital market needs informed and interested investors". Although saving in share funds has become more popular in the past years in Austria, there is still a great deal of catching up to do: In Austria, around 17% of total assets are invested in shares and investment certificates. The European average is almost twice as high at 32%. In absolute figures, Austrians invest approximately €58 billion in equities and investment certificates. By way of comparison: The amount on savings accounts in Austria in 2005 was three times as high at EUR 182bn.
The extremely low share of Austrian stocks in the portfolios of Austrian investment funds is also a source of irritation for Mr. Buhl. Only 2% of total assets of Austrian investment funds are invested in Austrian stocks.
From Azerbaijan to Slovakia: Wiener Börse plays the role of internationaler expert
"Our expertise is in demand internationally. Wiener Börse is involved worldwide in numerous supranational projects as an expert, e.g. capital market projects in Slovakia and Czech Republic, as well as in Senegal and Azerbaijan," said Mr. Buhl. Therefore, another focus of work for this year will be the further expansion of its position as an international consultant. Wiener Börse will consistently pursue the strategy of building a Central and East European alliance.
The achievements of the past two years of the efforts towards the internationalization of Wiener Börse are impressive.
In 2004, the following projects were completed:
- Acquisition of 68.8% of the Budapest Stock Exchange jointly with an Austrian-Hungarian banking consortium
- Cooperation agreement (MoU) with the Shanghai Stock Exchange
- MoU with the Bucharest Stock Exchange
In 2005, the following projects were completed:
- Joint data vending with the Budapest Stock Exchange
- Index cooperation with the Shanghai Stock Exchange (CNX)
- Index cooperation with the Bucharest Stock Exchange (ROTX)
- MoU with the Dubai Exchange
- MoU with the Zagreb Stock Exchange