As part of the Széchenyi 2020 plan, in 2017 the Ministry for National Economy announced a call for applications under identification number GINOP-1.1.7-17-2017-00001 and the subject heading “Increasing the efficiency of the SME sector, primarily through measures designed to facilitate public listing”. The contents of the BSE’s strategy announced for the 2016-2020 period justified the Hungarian stock exchange submitting an application, which the NGM accepted and deemed to be worthy of support. As a result, from 6 February 2018, as part of the BSE GINOP mentoring programme, small and medium-sized domestic enterprises receiving specific international training can apply to the Budapest Stock Exchange for support in covering the costs of preparation for public listing.

The GINOP mentoring project is made up of two parts. The first part of the project aims to support SMEs taking part in the training programme implemented through international cooperation, while the objective of the second is to set up a programme supporting the preparation of SMEs for the stock exchange and going public.

In the first half of the project, the BSE aims to launch a cooperation programme providing European training and mentoring services and conveying these to target group enterprises. The companies participating in this international cooperation have the opportunity to take part in a complex training/mentoring programme, where they can learn from the most highly qualified advisors and extend their network of contacts. In addition, the programme also allows businesses to find the financing method most favourable for them, whether through loans or equity financing or even through the BSE.

The goal of the second part of the project is to support medium-sized enterprises in their preparation for the stock exchange and to encourage them to raise funds via the capital market if there is no or only insufficient financial funding available on the money markets. The target group comprises more mature medium-sized companies which are ready for transparent public operation, but which have not yet begun preparations for the stock exchange listing process due to a lack of know-how or financing.

As a whole, the BSE GINOP mentoring project focuses expressly on those enterprises which show potential to be suitable for listing and/or to be an attractive investment option for Hungarian institutional or private capital investors after the preparatory period.