Österreich: Daten- statt Aktienhandel: Wiener Börse übernimmt Hamburger Datendienstleister North Data

The Vienna Stock Exchange announced on the weekend that it has acquired an 80-percent stake in Hamburg-based data services company North Data. This expansion of the company's portfolio, beyond its core business of stock trading and exchange listings, comes as 40 percent of its revenue in the previous record-breaking year originated from these activities.

Wiener-Börse CEO Christoph Boschan noted in a press release that the company is diversifying its revenue streams along its core business sectors. The investment in North Data is driven by its strong market position in European corporate data, complementary alignment with existing data activities, and long-term growth prospects. With this acquisition, the company already generates over a fifth of its revenue from market data, with nearly 30 percent coming from custody services at the Prague Exchange and over seven percent from IT services.

The business sectors are highly profitable, with the Wiener Börse reporting a 59 percent margin in the previous year. The company's decision to acquire North Data was announced on Sunday, but the takeover has been operational for over six weeks, with the acquisition completed at the Notary on July 29th. North Data's CEO Frank-Felix Debatin remains with the company as CEO, retaining the remaining 20 percent stake.

The company's co-founder Raphael Proksch, who became the Financial Chief at the Vienna Stock Exchange on August 13th, now heads the business operations. North Data's three-tiered business model includes free basic data, paid advanced search and dossiers, and interfaces for companies and authorities. The company collects information on 100 million private companies across 26 European countries from over 160 public sources, including registries and EU databases.

The Wiener Börse joins a trend among major stock exchange operators who have acquired data providers, such as the London Stock Exchange Group's acquisition of Refinitiv for $27 billion in 2021 and Deutsche Börse's investment in ESG data with ISS. Bourses worldwide are expanding beyond trading floors to become information conglomerates.

The Wiener Börse states that they view data as a growth business, with data subscriptions providing more predictable revenue streams than fluctuating trading volumes. The company's previous investments are in regulated markets, but North Data offers data on companies not listed on the exchange, such as compliance departments, credit examiners, or authorities.

North Data also has a strong connection to journalism, including membership in the funding board of Netzwerk Recherche and an investigative data journalist employed since April 2025. The strategic direction remains unchanged under Debatin's leadership. The Wiener Börse is owned by a larger group of Austrian banks and insurers, including Unicredit Bank Austria, Erste Group, Vienna Insurance Group, Raiffeisen Bank International, Österreichische Kontrollbank, and Uniqa Group.

The purchase price is not disclosed, but estimates suggest it falls between $24 million and $47 million based on North Data's 2025 expected surplus of over two million euros and recurring subscription revenues of more than ten million euros per year. Comparable companies are currently traded at a half to one and a half times their revenue, according to Jan Eiben, Managing Partner at Hampleton Partners.

The acquisition represents a significant growth opportunity for the Wiener Börse, which has seen its profit margins multiply by twenty times since 2020.