Leading Czech banker urges merger of Central and Eastern Europe bourses

The five largest bourses in Central and Eastern Europe should work hard on a merger plan to weather unfavorable market conditions, a leading Czech banker said yesterday. Daniel Heller, head of the financial markets division at Ce ska Sporitelna, one of the country's biggest brokers, said he welcomed Hung ary's recent attempt to proceed with the link-up of the region's markets. H eller said Warsaw, Budapest, Prague and Bratislava should join forces, and added that Vienna should also not ignore the East. The Warsaw and Budapest bourses have already said they would prefer closer links with their western counterparts. But Heller cautioned against this. "In that case the bourses would have to focus on Western Europe, but that would not be a merger of eq uals," he said. (Reuters)