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2001 – 2006

At the end of 2001, Wiener Börse AG moved completely from the premises of OeKB at Strauchgasse 1-3 to Palais Caprara-Geymüller, Wallnerstraße 8, 1014 Vienna. The exchange had its own building once again.

Introduction of the Prime Market and Start of Trading on EXAA

At the beginning of 2002, the prime market was created when the new market segmentation was introduced. Transparency and liquidity on the market in Vienna improved enormously with imposition of compliance with the more stringent criteria of the prime market such as accounting in accordance with IFRS or US-GAAP, heightened disclosure requirements and higher free float.
In March 2002, the EXAA (Energy Exchange Austria) starting trade in electricity. As a shareholder, Wiener Börse played a major role in the establishment of a platform for trading in energy products.

Since 2003, the cash market on Wiener Börse has undergone a strong revival. Wiener Börse had not been hit by the market plunges seen on the major international stock markets at the end of 2002. Investors were looking for alternatives and were discovering the smaller stock exchanges. Market capitalization went up driven by initial public offerings, the privatization of major formerly state-owned companies and capital increases. Austrian companies succeeded in positioning themselves well in Eastern Europe after the EU enlargement, which has had a positive influence on the price trends of ATX stocks. The revival of Wiener Börse attracted the attention of domestic and foreign investors.

Wiener Börse expands its network of stock exchanges

An Austrian consortium, consisting of HVB Hungary, Wiener Börse AG, Erste Bank, RZB and OeKB acquired a majority stake in the Budapest Stock Exchange in 2004. This partnership laid the cornerstone for a network of exchanges, which has been progressing steadily and now includes cooperation agreements with many East European exchanges. Wiener Börse boasts partnerships with eight exchanges in Southeast Europe (Bucharest, Zagreb, Belgrade, Sofia, Sarajevo, Montenegro, Banja Luka and Macedonia).

In July 2004, the ATX climbed over the 2,000-point mark for the first time which illustrated the upturn on the capital market.

New Clearing System and Sustained Upswing

The clearing and settlement of Austrian securities had been done by Oesterreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB). As of January 2005, CCP Austria, a company owned jointly by Wiener Börse AG and OeKB, started operations for the clearing and settlement of all cash market and derivatives trades.

In April, Raiffeisen International Bank-Holding AG went public and with an offering volume of EUR 1.1bn, it was the largest IPO in the history of the Austrian capital market.

In June, the ATX surpassed the 3,000-point mark and thus continued its uptrend.

In 2005, Wiener Börse was the first exchange worldwide to enter into a concrete product cooperation agreement with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. At the end of 2005, the two exchanges started the joint publication of the CNX (China Traded Index), which contains 30 Chinese blue chips.

The share of foreign investment firms in trading on Wiener Börse grew to 50% by the end of 2005 and is the result of the greater interest in the domestic market.

After breaking through the 4,000-point mark, the ATX hit its last all-time high of 4,344 points in May 2006. In the same month, a stake of 49% in Oesterreichische Post AG was successfully privatized through the stock exchange.