Vienna  - The Vienna Stock Exchange will acquire 81.01 per cent of the Slovenian exchange in Ljubljana, according to an announcement by the Vienna stock market on Friday.

The exchange in Vienna won a bidding process started by the 30 brokers and banks which currently own Ljubljana's stock market.

"The Vienna Stock Exchange considers itself a long-term investor and together we will focus mainly on the areas of products, data vending and indices," said Heinrich Schaller, the Vienna exchanges' CEO.

The deal, which is set to be inked on June 24, will strengthen the central and eastern European capital markets, he said.

In the area of data distribution, the Vienna stock exchange already cooperates with central and south eastern European exchanges in Budapest, Bucharest, Banja Luka and Sarajevo. In the coming weeks, Vienna is set to increase its stake in the Budapest Stock Exchange to 37.7 per cent, making it its biggest shareholder.

The Ljubljana stock exchange lists 168 securities and has a market capitalization of 21.6 billion euros (33.7 billion dollars) as of Friday, with an average daily turnover of around 9 million euros in 2007. (dpa)