CEESEG: Harsh Environment Depresses Earnings for 2011

CEESEG Aktiengesellschaft, the group parent company of the exchanges of the CEE Stock Exchange Group, which includes Budapest, Ljubljana, Prague and Vienna, reported a profit on ordinary business activity (EBT) of € 15.42m (2010: € 30.13m). This decrease was caused mainly by the adverse environment, primary due to impairment losses of € 11.75m recognized for the Budapest Stock Exchange caused by the lower € o/forint exchange rate.

“The profit reported by CEESEG merely mirrors the harsh conditions under which all € opean stock exchanges are currently struggling and is not any indication of the quality of the companies listed on our four stock exchanges. It is mainly a result of the “sit and wait” strategy of most investors in € opean capital markets and by increasing shift of the trading volume to intransparent OTC platforms caused by MiFID. However, the CEE Stock Exchange Group is – and remains – the largest stock exchange group in Central and Eastern € ope,” stressed the two management board members of CEESEG, Michael Buhl and Petr Koblic.

At today’s general shareholders’ meeting, the following change to the supervisory board of CEESEG AG effective 14 June 2012 was also decided: Michael Spiss, Vice Chairman of the Management Board of Raiffeisen Centrobank AG, will replace former RBI Management Board Member Patrick Butler.