Athens Stock Exchange acquired a qualifying holding in BELEX

The Republic of Serbia Securities Commission voted its approval for the acquisition of a qualified holding amounting to 10.24% by the Athens Stock Exchange (Hellenic Exchanges – Athens Stock Exchange S.A) in the Belgrade Stock Exchange (BELEX), at its 176 session held on 30 July 2021.

As the Athens and the Belgrade Stock Exchange jointly announced on 5 August, the stock exchanges are joining forces in order to collectively strengthen their presence in South East Europe and benefit from new opportunities.

The Belgrade Stock Exchange has decided to enhance its trading facilities by migrating its trading activities as a market operator to the ATHEX trading platform, enlarging the common trading platform pool of liquidity and services. All market participants will benefit from the enlargement of both capital markets and the cross-trading opportunities offered. As the next step, BELEX and ATHEX will closely cooperate with the Serbian Government and the Ministry of Finance towards the enhancement of the Serbian capital market and introduce new products and services that will support the flow of capital from investors from local and international investors to BELEX-listed issuers.

Minister of Finance Siniša Mali indicated that the joining of forces between the Belgrade and the Athens stock exchanges would facilitate the introduction of new financial instruments in the Republic of Serbia and provide access to big international investors to BELEX. He pointed out that the joining of forces between the two stock exchanges was of great significance to the Republic of Serbia, considering that the drafting of the strategy for the development of the capital market was currently underway. One of the key objectives of the capital market development is the accelerated GDP growth, strengthening the Serbian economy through new investment opportunities for the Serbian and international companies,  individual, and institutional investors.