Two Croatian Stock Exchanges Merge

The Zagreb Stock Exchange merged with Varazdin Stock Exchange on March 16, 2007.

VSE joined with the main Zagreb bourse to create a combined exchange with constituents

having a total market capitalization put at around 295 billion kuna ($53.5 billion), including 43 billion kuna worth of bonds.

After the merge, number of listed companies on the Zagreb Stock Exchange rose to 344 (369 stocks).

The Official Zagreb Stock Exchange Index CROBEX will be recalculated to include only the free float of the listed companies. Thirty stocks, including seven taken over from Varazdin, will be included in the new index.

The CROBEX has steadily risen from 2,100 points in October 2005, when Croatia opened EU accession talks, to a life-high 3,938 points in mid-March. Total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange from the beginning of this year was 18.2 billion kuna.