Istanbul exchange trades Sarajevo SASX-10 index futures for first time

SARAJEVO - Reuters

Istanbul bourse plans to have an initial public offering of its own shares in the first half of 2016.

Turkey’s state-run stock exchange Borsa Istanbul has started trading index futures of 10 companies from the Sarajevo Stock Exchange as part of expansion plans ahead of an initial public offering expected in the first half of 2016.

Borsa Istanbul is trying to increase links with other exchanges in the region such as those in Sarajevo and Montenegro as it prepares for the listing.

“We developed this project to create a network of financial institutions where Istanbul will function as a hub, so local markets will have the ability to have an access to a larger pool of liquidity,” Ibrahim Turhan, the president of the Borsa Istanbul managing board, told a news conference.

Turhan said the Istanbul bourse planned to have an initial public offering of its own shares in the first half of 2016.

“In the first half of 2016, we will go for the IPO,” Turhan said. “The Turkish government has authorized Borsa as the organizer and operator of the IPO.”

He said that Borsa Istanbul had signed a strategic partnership last year with Nasdaq in the United States and expected to bring on board some other “strong names.”

Borsa Istanbul, which owns five percent or 308 SASE shares, has announced it wanted to acquire a further 1,563 shares when they go on sale next month and increase its SASE stake to 25 percent.
Turhan said Borsa Istanbul wanted to help small regional exchanges, such as the Sarajevo and Montenegro bourses, survive in a highly competitive market.

The Sarajevo exchange’s SASX-10 includes among others Bosnian majority state-owned telecom companies BH Telecom and HT Mostar, and power utilities EPBiH and HZHB Mostar.

SASE General Manager Tarik Kurbegovic said the first transactions in the SASX-10 index futures at the Borsa have been conducted, and Bosnia’s local capital market should benefit from the visibility of its companies on such a large market.

SASE has already clinched a deal with the Borsa Istanbul on the data distribution. It plans next year to tie up with the Turkish partner via an order-routing system, enabling investors in both countries to directly trade on both bourses.

The officials said they also planned a dual listing of both Turkish and Bosnian firms on both bourses hopefully next year.

The Borsa is Turkey’s only exchange, created from the 2013 merger of the Istanbul Stock Exchange, Gold Exchange and Derivatives Exchange ahead of a planned privatization.