The Vienna Stock Exchange has won official backing for its takeover of the Prague Stock Exchange, strengthening its presence in the region and boosting hopes for a more liquid derivatives market.
Wiener Börse already owns, together with Oesterreichische Kontrollbank, 68.8% of the Budapest Stock Exchange, and in June bought 81.01% of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.
As far as derivatives are concerned, the Prague Stock Exchange itself is tiny – it lists six equity index and single stock futures, but only 11,528 contracts were traded in 2007.
However, its subsidiary Prague Energy Exchange, established in March 2007, traded 2.1m Czech and Slovak electricity contracts in the first 10 months of 2008. This exchange will be the only centre of expertise...