Budapest, November 2, 2020 – AKKO Invest takes another significant step ahead at the Budapest Stock Exchange, with its shares being traded in the Premium category starting Monday. The asset management company of more than 1,000 shareholders has achieved significant results recently: in September, its shares were included in the BUX index, and they announced the purchase of one of the main property management companies in Hungary, NEO Property Services Zrt. AKKO intends to realize its growth plans within the Hungarian stock exchange, and continues to explore the relevant opportunities.
Starting Monday, the shares of AKKO Invest Nyrt. will be traded in the Premium category of the Budapest Stock Exchange, so the company continues on the path started at its 2019 transformation. Zoltán Prutkay, President of AKKO Invest explained that the company had made considerable progress in the Hungarian capital market over the past months: their shares had been included in the top categories of the Budapest Stock Exchange, being listed in the BUX index since September, and traded in the Premium category starting November 2. He emphasized that the company had more than 1,000 shareholders, so the growth of the company was directly monitored by many people. Transparent operation is especially important for them, so they are happy to meet the additional requirements resulting from the Premium membership. He added that they continued looking for growth opportunities, and they were planning on investment decisions that aim to increase the shareholder value. One step towards this goal is the September decision of the Board of Directors regarding the largest acquisition of AKKO’s history, which is also considerable from the aspect of the Hungarian property management sector. The asset management company decided about the purchase of NEO Property Services Zrt. (previously STRABAG Property and Facility), a company owned by WING Zrt., and achieving a revenue of HUF 23.3 billion and an EBITDA of HUF 1.5 billion last year. Since its foundation in 1999, NEO has been one of the leading property management companies in Hungary, with favorable growth prospects. The closure of the transaction, which the company plans to finance from its own financial sources and bank loans, requires the availability of the necessary funding and the approval of the company’s shareholders.
Regarding the introduction of AKKO’s shares in the Premium category, István Máté-Tóth, Deputy CEO of BSE, said that the growth and the increasingly considerable presence of the company in the capital market reflects the successful realization of the strategic objectives of the Budapest Stock Exchange, aiming to drive capital funding: the category shift of AKKO Invest is another welcome capital market milestone in the midst of this challenging year.
Zoltán Prutkay added that being included in the BUX index and the Premium category, as well as the acquisition of NEO are significant steps for the company towards the realization of its growth plans, which aim to make the company a major asset management company of the Hungarian capital market. AKKO Invest supports the strategy of the Budapest Stock Exchange announced in 2016, and trusts that new measures will be introduced in the future for the further development of the capital market and for increasing the market liquidity of the stock market.