Euronext aims to make the Athens Stock Exchange its main hub for Southeastern Europe, while the transaction (the acquisition of the Greek exchange by the European platform) is expected to be value-accretive to earnings from the very first year. This was stated by Euronext CEO Stéphane Boujnah, who also spoke in highly positive terms about the Greek economy, referring to its “ impressive progress.”
On Thursday evening, Boujnah spoke with journalists from around the world, announcing his company’s results. As expected, most of his presentation and the questions that followed focused on the acquisition of the Athens Stock Exchange, the proposal for which had been announced earlier that morning.
According to fully reliable information obtained by the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA), Boujnah stated that the decision to acquire the Athens Stock Exchange “is a transaction that significantly strengthens Euronext, upgrades our strategic prospects, and opens new avenues for future growth.” At the same time, he said, it offers substantial and lasting benefits to the Greek market, “which will become even more dynamically integrated into European and global capital flows.”
During the presentation, the head of Euronext referred several times to what he described as the impressive progress of the Greek economy, while revealing that “Euronext aims to make the Athens Stock Exchange the main hub for Southeast Europe.”
As Boujnah specifically pointed out, “Over the past four years, the Athens Stock Exchange has benefited from a favourable macroeconomic environment, thanks to the ongoing recovery of the Greek economy. Between 2020 and 2024, the Athens Stock Exchange’s net revenue increased by more than 70% to 52 million euros, while EBITDA tripled to 23.7 million euros.”
He added that “the Greek economy is expected to continue to significantly boost the Stock Exchange’s activity, supporting ongoing transparency in asset valuation and increasing the international attractiveness of the Greek market.”
According to the same ANA-MPA source, the head of Euronext told reporters that “with the inclusion of ATHEX in Europe’s largest liquidity pool, Greek issuers and investors will gain much greater visibility and access. At the same time, ATHEX will benefit from its participation in the leading European listing network, creating sustainable benefits for trading volume.”
He expressed confidence that “the transaction is expected to add value to earnings from the first year, following the implementation of initial synergies. Our goal is to achieve annual cash synergies of 12 million euros by the end of 2028, with restructuring costs of approximately 25 million euros.”
