CCHBC departure to see ATHEX trail Vietnam bourse
When Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Co SA, the world?s second-largest Coca-Cola bottler, quits the Athens stock exchange for London next year, it will leave the Greek market smaller than Vietnam.
The company?s departure will cut the value of equities listed in Athens to about $31 billion from $39.2 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Vietnam is valued at $35.2 billion.
Greece?s bourse is already the smallest among 24 developed markets tracked by Bloomberg.
Coca-Cola HBC, Greece?s largest company by market value, is fleeing the epicenter of Europe?s sovereign debt crisis.
The Greek market has lost 86 percent of its value since peaking at $273 billion in November 2007 as surging borrowing costs forced the government to accept two European Union-led bailouts.
?The fact that a very well-known and established international company is moving away from the Athens stock exchange is a negative situation,? said Theodore Krintas, who helps oversee 80 million euros as managing director of Attica Wealth Management in Athens.
?Although the Athens stock exchange is considered to be a developed market, it becomes more like developing than developed when you lose this kind of company.?
Coca-Cola HBC, based in the Greek capital, currently accounts for 23 percent of the benchmark ATHEX index?s weighting, with a market value of 6.23 billion euros, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
[Bloomberg]
