Greece’s ATHEX Group and Sofia’s bourse inked a deal for the admission to trading, clearing and settlement of Bulgarian derivatives.
The scope of the agreement includes the introduction of single stock futures having as underlying selected stocks traded at the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) and index futures, having as underlying the blue-chip index of the BSE, the SOFIX, which tracks the performance of the most liquid companies listed in the BSE.
The products are planned to be traded on the derivative market of the Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX) and the clearing to be provided by clearing house ATHEXClear, the Greek bourse’s subsidiary, in accordance with the relevant requirements of EMIR and the EU legislation.
Euro will be the currency for both trading and clearing of the instruments.
“Derivatives are the missing link in the investment chain on the Bulgarian capital market. Investors can utilize them to hedge portfolio risk or to speculate market movement with potentially high rates of return. Consequently, derivatives are an excellent financial instrument for both individual and institutional investors. We are working intensely with ATHEX Group to launch the Bulgarian derivatives as preliminary planned for Q2 of 2022”, said Manyu Moravenov, CEO of BSE.
“We are really pleased to welcome the new Bulgarian products in the ATHEX derivatives market and we consider this to be the first step of further cooperation with BSE for the benefit of both markets and participants”, commented Socrates Lazaridis, CEO of ATHEX Group.
In the upcoming months teams from both exchanges will implement the complex project with different phases regarding product and model design, promotional and market awareness activities, infrastructure deployment, training and testing.
ATHEX Group continues to strengthen its presence in South East Europe by enlarging its broader regional network. In August 2021, it got the green light by the Securities Commission of Republic of Serbia to acquire a 10.24% stake in Belgrade Stock Exchange (BELEX).
At that time, BELEX decided to enhance its trading facilities by migrating its trading activities as Market Operator to the ATHEX’s Trading Platform.
In November 2021, the agreement for the provision of trading facilities by migrating BELEX trading activities as Market Operator to the Trading platform of ATHEX was signed. As a result, all partners (Athens Exchange, Belgrade Stock Exchange, Cyprus Stock Exchange) and their associated investment community will collectively increase their operational efficiency, improve market liquidity, enhance their business opportunities and thus efficiently support local economies development.
The agreement also stresses ATHEX’s commitment to actively support BELEX’s strategic endeavor to develop the Serbian capital market into an international benchmarked market.
