Vienna  - The Vienna Stock Exchange AG is expanding its reach in Central and Eastern Europe, as it has agreed to take over a majority of the Prague Stock Exchange.

"We agreed on the general terms of sale," Beatrix Exinger, spokeswoman of the Vienna bourse, was quoted by Austrian news agency APA on Wednesday.

The Prague stock exchange is valued at between 200 million and 400 million euros (268 million to 537 million dollars), but Exinger said the sale price was still to be negotiated.

Vienna could take over up to 90 per cent of the Prague exchange, according to Czech media reports.

Major shareholders in Prague include the investor Patria Finance a. s. which holds 24.85 per cent, as well as the bank Ceska Sporitelna a. s. and Tiger Holding Four S. a. r. l.

Both stock markets have suffered from the global financial downturn. While Prague's PX index lost round 34 per cent in the past month, Vienna's ATX dropped by around 37 per cent in the same period.

Earlier in October, Slovenian authorities cleared the way for the Vienna stock exchange to take over Slovenia's bourse in Ljubljana.

The Vienna market strengthened its position in central Europe in June by raising its stake in the Budapest exchange to 37.7 per cent. (dpa)