Albania to choose a strategic partner for planned 2010 stock exchange

In 2010, the Albanian government will take a concrete decision for the establishment of Tirana stock exchange market, reported Economy, Trade and Energy Minister, Dritan Prifti.
“We will choose a strategic investor, or an European stock exchange, which will take the control package of Tirana Stock Exchange (TSE). But 20-30% of the package will be provided to the Albanian banking system” the Minister said.
Different attempts have been initiated previously to establish a stock exchange in Tirana, but they were never finalized.
A stock exchange would represent an opportunity for securing liquidity from companies operating in the market, and a new investment opportunity for the citizens.
TSE, the first stock exchange in the financial history of Albanian, was established in 1996 as a department of Bank of Albania (BoA) (central bank) with the aim to spin it off after a transitional period of several years. It is organized as an order driven market. The activity at hand was the trading of the T-Bills with 12 months-to-maturity, five series of government bonds and privatization vouchers. Trading sessions were held, firstly, twice a week, every Monday and Thursday. By October 1997, the sessions began to be held every business day and the trading of 3 and 6 months-to-maturity Treasury Bills commenced too. It also held out the primary auctions for Treasury Bills until August 1st, 1998, than this market moved to Monetary Operations Department, at BoA. There was no stock trading in TSE.
As of July 1st, 2002, TSE spun-off physically form BoA and continued its activity as a stand-alone institution. One year after, TSE obtained the final license from Albanian Securities Commission to operate as an organized market on financial instruments. This license was renewed again in 2005.