Warsaw Stock Exchange is in talks to forge a strategic alliance with a "large" stock exchange operator, with a decision to be announced within weeks, its chief executive Ludwik Sobolewski told daily Rzeczpospolita in an interview.
Sobolewski declined to give details of the possible deal, adding only that it would strengthen Warsaw's position in central and eastern Europe, where it is competing with the Vienna bourse to become the region's main stock exchange around which future consolidation may centre.
"We are finalising an alliance with a large operator, which is playing in a completely different league to us," Sobolewski told Rzeczpospolita. "But we want to maintain our sovereignty in this relationship."
The newspaper names NYSE-Euronext and Nasdaq-OMX as potential partners for the exchange, giving no details of its sources.
The Warsaw bourse wants to buy stakes in exchanges in Prague, Ljubljana and Sofia as part of it plan to expand in central Europe, which has been hindered partly due to its status as a state-controlled company.
Markets are eyeing the formation of a new government this month for signs that the bourse's long-touted privatisation may move forward. The new ruling coalition will be led by a pro-business party which has promised to sell-off state assets quickly.
(Thomson Financial)