Attila Szalay-Berczeviczy, the head of the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE), may be forced to step down at the May annual general meeting.
According to a report in the Vienna-based Wirtschaftblatt, Szalay-Berczeviczy, the engaging former HVB executive who became CEO of the BSE after its acquisition by a consortium of Austrian banks and the Vienna Stock Exchange, is regarded as too close to local interests in Hungary. He has argued for a local listing of BSE shares, while members of the consortium have in mind using BSE to create a regional exchange led by the Vienna Stock Exchange.
The report says that possible alternatives preferred by the consortium include the ex-Minister of Finance, Lajos Bokros, and Barbara Wsner, who is responsible for marketing and acquisitions at the Vienna Stock Exchange.
Yet it is hard to see what the consortium would gain from deposing Szalay-Berczeviczy. Hungarians are already uneasy about domination by the Austrian banks and the Vienna stock exchange. That uneasiness is shared by their counterparts throughout east and central Europe, making the expansion of Austrian interests in the region more difficult without Szalay-Berczeviczy than with him.
Certainly, the senior management of the largest Hungarian companies have made plain their belief in the continued importance of a local stock exchange. They have explicitly rejected the idea floated by Andreas Treichl, CEO of Erste Bank AG, a member of the Austrian banking consortium that acquired the BSE, that Bratislava in the Slovak Republic would be the best place for a regional exchange for all of east and central Europe.