Stock exchanges in central and eastern Europe are new to the international finance world. Geraldine Lambe looks at the tightrope they are walking between governments, issuers and foreign rivals.In a world of consolidating exchanges, the case for the small national markets of central Europe, and elsewhere, is becoming harder to justify economically. The exchanges’ problem of preventing the few large corporates – their main source of revenue – from de-listing is compounded by the fight to build an equity culture in a savings-dominated financial landscape.
Equally difficult are the tasks of persuading small companies of the value of listing in the first place and governments that they should introduce capital markets-friendly tax and regulatory frameworks. But without the stock exchanges, will the region’s many small companies have access to the long-term funding that is necessary to build the blue chips of tomorrow?
