The Vienna operator, which is battling the Warsaw Stock Exchange for supremacy in the region, will buy the stake from a group of financial shareholders of the Prague Stock Exchange, which has failed to match the growth of its larger rivals. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Analysts had estimated the Czech stock market operator to be worth up to 5 billion Czech koruna ($260 million). An Austrian paper reported in September that Wiener Boerse was set to bid at least 200 million euros ($264 million).

Prague’s main SPAD trading segment lists 14 stocks and has a market capitalization of more than $100 billion, including two secondary listings of Austrian financial stocks worth $30 billion.

Media reports said Deutsche Boerse and OMX Nordic Exchange had been interested bidders. The Warsaw bourse had wanted to buy its Czech rival, but was excluded from the process because it is state-owned.

The Vienna bourse already controls its Budapest and Ljubljana peers. (Reuters)