Albania’s first private stock exchange is expected to be operational soon, most probably this autumn, after it was licensed by the financial supervisory authority, AMF, earlier in July.

The opening of the stock exchange is highly important for the financial market in Albania, the only country in the region aside from neighbouring Kosovo that does not yet have a stock exchange. 

Albanian Securities Exchange (ALSE) is the first bourse in Albania established with private capital, AMF said in a statement after it licensed the bourse on July 5.

"For the moment, the company is making the final preparations to be operational as soon as possible," a spokesperson for the AMF told bne IntelliNews. 

Balkan Insight reported on July 24, quoting the bourse’s CEO Artan Gjergji, that the bourse will be opened in October.

Albania’s Credins Bank and American Bank of Investments own 42.5% of the bourse’s capital each. The third shareholder is the financial institution AK Invest, which owns 15% of the ALSE’s capital, AMF said.

The registered capital of the bourse amounts to ALL50mn (€376,000).

ALSE will use the electronic system called Quick Trade, a system used by the Ljubljana Stock Exchange as well as by the bourses in Skopje, Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Podgorica. 

This system can carry up to 100,000 transactions per day, according to AMF data. 

In the first year of its activity, the bourse's will focus solely on trading government securities. 

In the Albanian market, the creation of a stock exchange is a very positive development for the country's economy, as it will serve as a meeting point for firms to find needed capital to expand their businesses as well as for the government to find financing for development projects. 

The first bourse in Albania, Tirana Stock Exchange, TSE, was opened in 1996 but it never became fully operational. Initially, it was set up as a department of the central bank of Albania and later became a joint stock company. There was no trading with securities on the TSE.