The Eurobank EFG Group has reached an agreement to acquire approximately 74.16% of the share capital of Prospera Securities AD Beograd (“Prospera”) in Serbia, a member of the Belgrade Stock Exchange. Prospera is one of the most dynamically growing brokerage firms in Serbia, headquartered in Belgrade. Prospera is ranked third among brokerage firms in Serbia for 2006 in terms of Equity Trading, with a market share of 6.29%.
The acquired brokerage company will continue its operations under the current management structure with its highly skilled personnel. The current management team of Prospera consists of Mr. Ivan Radovic, Mr. Dejan Hinic and Mr. Bojan Milosevic.
The agreement to acquire Prospera is part of Eurobank EFG Group’s strategy to further expand its operations in the area of Capital Markets outside Greece, in line with its policy for developing a strong presence in the wider region of Southeastern Europe. Through Prospera, institutional, corporate and private Greek and international clients will have access to the entire spectrum of products and services offered in the Serbian and global markets.
The Belgrade Stock Exchange is a dynamic stock exchange in Southeastern Europe. The stock market index BELEXfm, has achieved a positive return of 22.7% reaching 2,000 points in 2006, while BELEX15 index has achieved a return of 59% in the same period, which is higher than the return of the MSCI Emerging Markets index (33%) for the same period. At the same time, the average daily trading volume of the market has increased substantially to €5.2 million in 2006, from €2.4 million in 2005, while the current capitalization of the Belgrade Stock Exchange is €11 billion.
The completion of this transaction is subject to appropriate regulatory approvals in Serbia, Greece and Switzerland.
