General Electric's gradual sale of its stake in Moneta Money Bank has lifted the Czech bank's chances of joining MSCI's benchmark country index, potentially attracting a new pool of investors.
The New York-based index provider recalculates its stock indexes twice a year and since the last review in May, GE has cut its stake in Moneta to 18.1 percent from 42.5 percent, in turn boosting the bank's free float market capitalisation.
The value of shares in the hands of public investors is one of the criteria used by MSCI to assess whether to put a company in its indexes and analysts say Moneta is now almost certain to join the MSCI Czech Republic Index.
Moneta's shares have risen 25 percent since debuting on the Prague bourse in May to value the firm at 43.5 billion crowns on Tuesday, of which 35.6 billion ($1.5 billion) is in freely floating shares.
That's more than three times the free float market capitalisation of telecoms firm O2 Czech Republic, which is one of three companies already in the MSCI Czech index along with utility CEZ and Komercni Banka.