After Moscow and Bucharest, American experts also visit the Varazdin OTC market by Marijan Cingula The Varazdin stock market has begun bringing its operations into line with the Issuing and Trading of Securities Act. Since the provisions on securities exchanges apply to organised public markets, it is necessary to bring together at least twenty Croatian security trading companies and ensure a basic capital of at least one million kuna. All the members of the market must have the same number of shares, which means that the founders of the market, being physical persons, must sell their shares exclusively through brokering houses. This change will affect the composition of the assembly and the election of all other organs of the company. The supervisory board has instructed the management to invite all banks and brokering houses in Croatia to join the future organised public market.
Worldwide experience shows that in any country, brokers operate in all accessible markets.
Since most brokers in Croatia are unable to meet the legal requirements concerning assets, the Varazdin market will allow them to pay up the basic capital in instalments over a period in keeping with the Act. It is believed that this will contribute to the development of the market since even small brokers will have the formal conditions to continue and develop their operations. Upgrading the system Considering the forthcoming coupon privatisation, it is not difficult to calculate that Croatia will soon have, in addition to today's so-called small shareholders, more than half a million individual owners of various stocks. Experience in other transition countries shows that at least three quarters of the new shareholders want to do something with their shares, which indicates that we can expect at least 375,000 potential participants in stock trading. If only a quarter of those wish to sell their shares within a year, that will mean more than 200,000 participants in buyer-seller transactions.