Company Fact Book 1998 [antikvár]

COMPANY FACT BOOK To our Readers, Another year has passed and the Budapest Stock Exchange is about to publish a new edition of its guide to the listed companies and capital markét in Hungary, Company Fact Book. We hope this third edition of our hand-book will be a further step in the direction of publicity and transparency so essential to the stock exchange: in view of the wealth of information it contains it should be just as useful to professional players on the markét as it is to the small investors. The success of earlier editions is illustrated by the popularity of the publication among Hungárián and foreign visitors to the BSE, as well as by the wide interest shown prior to its going to press this year. All this means that the demand for systematic and detailed information on the Budapest Stock Exchange is growing. This is valid even for those periods - like now, as we are compiling the Fact Book - when stock markét share prices do not depend primarily on the achievements of the issuers, but on the developments affecting all the stock markets in the world (due to the crises in Asia and Russia). We are convinced that in spite of the current climate in the international capital markét the Budapest stock markét continues to be an attractive area for longer-term investors. This view is borne out by the themes touched on in this hand-book: the country's macroeconomic results of recent years, the excellent management of those listed companies which provide the buik of the stock exchange turnover, the increasingly transparent regulations of the stock and capital markét, and the trading system updated to a great extent in 1998. Our readers will be able to follow the work done by the stock exchange secretariat on developing the markét and regulations over the past year which has resulted in several stock exchange regulations gaining new shape and promising long-term stability. I sincerely hope that our readers will be satisfied with the Company Fact Book this year as they have been in previous years, and, on the strength of its content, will share our optimisim about the future of the Hungárián capital markét. his is the third time that Bank & Tőzsde has produced the Company Fact Book, its annual publication on the Budapest Stock Exchange or rather the listed companies. Preparing the 1998 edition was an especially difficult task: not only because at the beginning of 1997 the "subject" underwent explosive development, but alsó because the falling prices in August (due to the Asian and Russian crisis) gave us a lot of rethinking and re-evaluating to do in the moments before going to press. Nonetheless we hope that this year's edition will surpass the previous year's not just in length, but that you will see an improvement in its content, its editing and the depth with which certain subjects have been covered. The increased length is partly due to the fortunate rise in the number of listed companies, and partly because we have given over more space to describing the macroeconomic and legal environment surrounding the stock exchange, and to the domestic capital markét processes. We felt that an analysis of Hungary's macroeconomic situation in the autumn of 1998 was particularly opportune bearing in mind that the majority of stock markét price movements at this time seem to be independent of the positive or negative news connected with the various issuing companies. Nowadays the investors' considerations - first and foremost those of foreign investors - linked to the financial stability of this country and the possible effects of the crisis in Asia and Russia on Hungary, bear a good deal more weight. Right now we can only hope that the "Asian virus" which has infected a number of economies won't spread to West Europe and North America, so that the investors will soon be able to carry on their work in a calmer environment than there is at present. All of which should mean that - as in previous years - they will make their decisions based on the company data making up the backbone of our publication. I would therefore like to draw your attention to our handbook, and at the same time thank the representatives of the listed companies for their cooperation and help in compiling it. Dr Zoltán Pacsi Chief Executive Officer of the BSE László Banyái* Editor of the Company Fact Book