The majority shareholders of the Prague Stock Exchange announced their decision to sell a controlling stake on August 6 and speculation surrounding potential buyers is growing. The Vienna Stock Exchange, the Warsaw Stock Exchange, Deutsche Börse and the Nasdaq OMX Group are all believed to have at least a passing interest.
There have been some high profile initial public offerings in Prague this year, including the £1.1bn listing in May of coal mining firm New World Resources on the London, Warsaw and Prague exchanges. It was the largest European IPO of the year so far.
But equity trading has sagged. Total throughput in January-July 2008 was Ck520bn ($30bn), down from Ck577bn...