Vienna, 9 December 1996 (RFE/RL) -- The Dresdner Bank of Germany has launched 2.1 million non-voting shares on Austria's East European Index, the CECE, for the Czech, Hungarian and Polish stock markets.
This is the first time that any financial products calculated for the East European indexes and connected to the futures section of the Austrian stock exchange, the OTOB, have been traded on the spot market.
These shares, issued on November 27 and running to 2001, have an almost five year period of validity. The Dresdner Bank has reserved the right to extend the period of validity as or when required.
The Dresdner Bank is the second foreign bank to issue products on members of the CECE index family. The first was the Belgian derivative and credit bank Petercam Derivatives. Two Austrian banks, the Creditanstalt Investment Bank (CAIB) and the Investmentbank Austria have already launched options on the CECE index.
The spokesman for the Austrian exchange, Johann Schmit, said he was "extremely pleased that a bank of this size has worked with the OTOB."
The Dresdner Bank is the second biggest bank in Germany and had a 1995 balance of 484,500 million DM and employs 46,890 people.
The OTOB sees this launch by Dresdner bank as a sign of recognition by a leading international bank in the CECE financial market.
Given current demand, further issues of CECE warrants could well be expected, said Mr Schmit. He also expects another German institution to join in on OTOB trade shortly.