Hungary's Richter expects to get into MSCI index -CEO Bogsch

Krka dd Novo Mesto

03/10/2013 20:29

BUDAPEST, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Hungarian pharmaceutical company Gedeon Richter  GDRB.BU  expects to return to the MSCI index soon, the company's CEO said on Thursday. Shares in Richter have firmed by over 9 percent in high turnover since Sept. 24, when France's Servier offered to buy all shares it did not already own of Egis  EGIS.BU . Richter closed at 4,000 forints ($18.39) on Thursday, up 1.8 percent. If Servier buys all Egis shares, the Hungarian company will be delisted from the Budapest Stock Exchange, leaving Richter the only drugmaker there. That news and hopes that Richter will get into the MSCI index in the next months helped its shares surge on the bourse. "Not only us, also investors expect that it is very likely that we will get back into the MSCI index," Richter CEO Erik Bogsch told the radio station Gazdasagi in an interview. He added that the expected delisting of Egis could make Richter shares more attractive as that would leave Richter and Slovenia's Krka  KRKG.LJ   KRK.WA  the only listed pharmaceuticals available to equity investors in Central Europe. Krka's shares firmed one percent on Thursday in Ljubljana. ($1 = 217.5395 Hungarian forints) (Reporting by Sandor Peto; editing by David Evans) ((sandor.peto@thomsonreuters.com)(+36 1 327 4744)(Reuters Messaging: sandor.peto.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: HUNGARY RICHTER/MSCI