следующая тема »

[F_C_A]

18 June 2007


LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE’S NEW TRADING SYSTEM GOES LIVE


TradElect, the London Stock Exchange’s new electronic trading system, has today gone live in London. With the launch of this entirely new technology platform, market participants will benefit from significant increases in both speed of trading and system capacity.


David Lester, the Exchange’s Chief Information Officer, said:


“The introduction of TradElect, the culmination of a four year investment in next generation technology, will deliver a step change in trading capabilities to the London market. As high-frequency algorithmic traders look globally for pools of liquidity in which to find alpha opportunities, TradElect sets new benchmarks in terms of system capacity and performance.


“TradElect reflects the Exchange’s strategic decision to replace its technology rather than take tactical steps to adapt the existing, outdated technology that most other market centres are using. Its launch underlines the Exchange’s commitment to invest continuously to improve market efficiency for the benefit of all traders, investors and listed companies. Together with a long-standing reputation for full transparency of information, strong regulation and progressive fee reductions, the London markets are underscoring their leading global position.”

 

TradElect gives the market the ability to execute trades fully and resiliently in around 10 milliseconds. This builds on the performance of Infolect, launched in October 2005, which provides the market with a full depth view of company prices within 2 milliseconds. These levels of performance should drive further increases in trading volume and allow new market strategies to be applied in London.


TradElect also increases the Exchange’s capacity, initially fivefold, to enable significant trading growth. In fact, TradElect’s launch capacity would be sufficient to handle the current trading transactions for all European equities. Moreover, TradElect enables the Exchange to further double capacity on demand, and at less than one fifth of previous costs.


The new platform has been designed to the highest levels of resilience with comprehensive back up, which includes dual processing at two sites and recovery from component failure within a second.


In preparation for today’s launch, customers have had access to test environments for the last nine months and there were three market weekend dress rehearsals over the past two months to prepare market systems for cutover. All market participants that deal directly have self-certified their readiness for today’s launch.

 

For further information, please contact:

London Stock Exchange
Patrick Humphris Press Office +44 (0)20 7797 1222
newsroom@londonstockexchange.com

[F_C_A]

23 June 2007

Borsa Italiana and London Stock Exchange Group to merge

[F_C_A]

9 July 2007

NEW RECORDS SET ON THE EXCHANGE’S MARKETS DURING JUNE

    * Daily SETS trades reach 536,000
    * IPO money raised up 52 per cent on first half of 2006

New trading records were reached across the London Stock Exchange’s markets during June. The average daily number of trades on SETS reached a record 535,578 trades per day, an increase of 62 per cent on June last year, while the average daily value traded also reached its highest ever levels, growing 43 per cent to £9.0 billion. In total, over 11.2 million trades were carried out on SETS during the month, an increase of 55 per cent year on year, while the overall value traded increased 37 per cent to £189.3 billion.

Included in the SETS totals, was another very strong month on SETSmm, with the average daily value traded exceeding £1.0 billion for the first time, an increase of 98 per cent on June 2006. Meanwhile, the average daily number of trades during the month more than doubled to a record 147,383.

On the Exchange’s International Order Book the average daily number of trades grew 51 per cent to 4,749, and the average daily value traded increased 56 per cent to a record £397.9 million. Over the same period, the average daily number of ETF trades grew 118 per cent to 1,985, while the average daily value traded in ETFs was up 102 per cent to £152.3 million.

During the month there were 12.3 million UK equity trades on the Exchange, an increase of 52 per cent on June 2006, and the total value traded in UK equity increased 37 per cent to £379.4 billion.

June was also an excellent month on the primary markets, with £3.0 billion raised through IPOs across the Main Market, Professional Securities Market, and AIM. During the month there were eight IPOs by UK companies, raising £924.8 million between them, and two international IPOs, raising £676.6 million between them. One GDR issuer carried out an IPO on the Professional Securities Market, raising £284.9 million. There were 25 IPOs on AIM during the month, which raised a total of £1.2 billion.

June’s IPO activity brought the total number of IPOs conducted on the Exchange’s markets this year to 137, and the total money raised via IPOs to £15.9 billion, up 52 per cent on the first six months of 2006.

RNS, the Exchange’s service for the dissemination of company news, issued 17,548 announcements during June, up 11 per cent on June last year. Of these, 36 per cent, or 6,279 were news and results announcements, representing an 86 per cent share of all such announcements made in the UK market.

There were 21 trading days during June, one fewer than in June the previous year.

For further information, please contact:
Catherine Mattison Press Office +44 (0)20 7797 1222 newsroom@londonstockexchange.com

[F_C_A]

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE GROUP plc

INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT FOR THE THREE MONTHS ENDED 30 JUNE 2007

Unless otherwise stated, all figures referenced below refer to the three months ended 30 June 2007 and the corresponding period last year.

The Exchange has made an excellent start to the financial year. Revenues for the first quarter increased strongly, up 19 per cent to £100.1 million (2006: £84.3 million). Record trading volumes on the Exchange’s electronic order book continued to drive revenue growth, Issuer Services had a record quarter, while the number of terminals taking Exchange data also continued to increase:

· Very strong Issuer performance, with 43 Main Market new issues, nearly double the number last year (23) and the highest first quarter number in six years

· Average daily number of SETS bargains increased 51 per cent to 501,000 and average daily value traded rose 27 per cent to £8.4 billion

· The new high speed TradElect trading platform was successfully launched, on schedule, in June

· Professional terminals were 99,000 - up 10,000 on June 2006 and 3,000 since March 2007

Commenting on the first quarter and outlook, Clara Furse, Chief Executive, said:

“The Exchange continues to deliver excellent growth with all key businesses performing strongly. Volumes on SETS reached new record levels, as our Issuer and Information divisions also made a very good start to the financial year.

“In the months ahead we look forward to completing our merger with Borsa Italiana to create Europe’s leading diversified exchange group. The merger will broaden the product and customer bases of the two exchanges, providing significant new opportunities for growth with benefits for market users and creating yet more value for shareholders.

“This very strong first quarter performance underlines our confidence in an excellent outcome for the full year.”

Issuer Services

Issuer Services delivered an excellent result for the period, with revenue up 35 per cent to a record £19.4 million (2006: £14.4 million).

Activity in the primary market remained very strong, with 128 new issues on the Exchange’s markets, raising a total of £10.2bn (2006: 138; £4.7bn). New admissions on the Main Market were at their highest level in six years, with 43 new issues (2006: 23) raising £7.5 billion (2006: £1.7 billion). In the first quarter there were 14 international Main Market new issues (2006: 4) raising £5.5 billion, more than half the £10.4 billion raised during the whole of FY 2007. AIM, our international market for smaller, growing companies, performed well with a total of 84 new issues (2006: 115). Income from annual fees rose during the period, mainly as a result of an increased number of companies on the Exchange’s markets. At 30 June 2007, a total of 3,273 companies were traded on our markets (2006: 3,193) including 1,656 on AIM (2006: 1,549).

Income from RNS also increased, contributing £2.7 million to turnover (2006: £2.5 million) with RNS retaining a 75 per cent share of announcements in Q1.

Broker Services

Broker Services’ revenue reached £47.5 million, the second-best quarterly performance on record, an increase of 18 per cent over the same period last year (2006: £40.4 million).

Trading on the SETS electronic order book continued to be the principal driver of growth. Average daily bargains increased 51 per cent to 501,000 bargains per day, a new quarterly record (2006: 332,000), and the average daily value of shares traded on SETS increased 27 per cent to £8.4 billion (2006: £6.6 billion). SETSmm, the hybrid electronic order book, continued its strong growth, with an average 131,000 bargains per day during the quarter (2006: 70,000). Overall, the average size of a SETS bargain reduced to £16,700 (2006: £20,000) with a yield per SETS bargain of approximately £1.09 during the period (2006: £1.44), reflecting in part the extension of tariff discounts to intermediaries.

This performance reflects the continuation of the structural shift in trading, in particular the increased use of algorithmic trading, direct market access and derivatives-based business. The 51 per cent growth in volume on SETS in Q1 puts the Exchange well on course to achieve or exceed the targeted 480,000 bargains per day in FY 2008, as set out in January of this year. Trading on SETS in the first quarter accounted for 84 per cent of total Broker Services income (2006: 83 per cent).

On June 18 the Exchange launched its new high speed trading system, TradElect. The new platform has performed as expected, giving the market the ability to execute trades fully and resiliently in around 10 milliseconds and with capacity increasing more than fourfold. This enhanced performance is already supporting message rates at a much higher level than possible on the previous system.

Information Services

Information Services showed strong growth, with revenue up 11 per cent to £28.4 million (2006: £25.5 million). The increase mainly reflects growth in terminal numbers over the corresponding period last year, together with increased contributions from Proquote and SEDOL.

The total number of terminals receiving real-time Exchange data at the end of Q1 was 120,000 (31 March 2007: 116,000; 30 June 2006: 107,000) of which approximately 99,000 were attributable to the higher-yield professional user base (31 March 2007: 96,000; 30 June 2006: 89,000).

The number of Proquote screens rose to 3,600 (30 June 2006: 3,100), including 1,100 international screens and SEDOL also performed well during the period.

Derivatives Services

Revenue in Derivatives Services’ increased 23 per cent to £2.7 million (2007: £2.2 million). EDX London performed very well with 9.3 million contracts traded (2006: 8.5 million), including 0.6m contracts for Russian derivatives, launched at the end of 2006.

Borsa Italiana

On 23 June, the London Stock Exchange announced that it proposes to combine with Borsa Italiana S.p.A. through a recommended merger valuing Borsa Italiana at £1,103 million (€1,634 million). The combined group will bring together two highly efficient and complementary businesses, to be the most liquid order book by value and volume traded, with 48 per cent of the FTSEurofirst100 by market capitalisation. It will also be Europe’s leading market for electronic trading of ETFs and securitised derivatives, as well as Europe’s leading fixed income market. Total synergies amounting to £40 million are anticipated to arise from the combination and the transaction is expected to be earnings accretive by at least 10 per cent in FY 2009.

A shareholder circular will be posted later this month and an EGM will be held in the first half of August 2007.

Share Buyback Programme

During the period, the Exchange bought back 6.0 million shares, for a total consideration of £77.3 million. .As at 30 June 2007, the Exchange had completed £137 million of the current £250 million share repurchase programme with the total number of shares in issue at 201,093,149. The Exchange remains committed to keeping its capital management under active review.

Outlook

The Exchange has maintained good momentum at the start of the year with strong growth in all businesses. This strong first quarter performance underpins our confidence in an excellent outcome for the full year.

Further information is available from:

London Stock Exchange:
Patrick Humphris - Media   020 7797 1222
Paul Froud - Investor Relations   020 7797 3322

Finsbury:
James Murgatroyd   020 7251 3801

London Stock Exchange

[F_C_A]

The London Stock Exchange today announced that it will launch a dedicated new market for issuers of specialist funds. The Specialist Fund Market will meet demand from both issuers and institutional and other professional investors for a quotation on a regulated market in London that provides sufficient flexibility for specialist vehicles such as single strategy hedge funds and private equity vehicles. This will satisfy a market need which will exist between AIM and the Main Market once the FSA’s new Unitary Regime is introduced.

Martin Graham, Director of Markets at the London Stock Exchange said:

“Hedge funds and private equity are an increasingly important asset class that pension funds and other institutional investors want access to in order to diversify their overall portfolios and improve their returns.

“We already offer investors and issuers a choice of routes to market according to the types of investors that issuers wish to target and the risk premiums sought by investors. The introduction of the Specialist Fund Market enhances that choice by creating a separate, clearly-labelled market for alternative assets such as single strategy hedge funds and private equity vehicles. It will enable the London markets to continue to meet what we know is a strong demand among issuers and investors for a regulated market quotation suitable for these more complex entities, while remaining clearly delineated as a professional market.”

The Specialist Fund Market will be open to both UK and international funds, and will be complementary to the FSA’s proposed Unitary Regime for investment entities listing on the Main Market. Issuers that wish to market funds to a wider audience, including retail investors, will continue to have access to the Main Market, which offers the potential for inclusion in index tracker funds and to AIM, and which has been very successful in attracting investment entities, primarily property funds or other conventional investment funds.

The Specialist Fund Market will be a Regulated Market operated in accordance with EU Directives. The FSA will approve issuers’ prospectuses in line with the Prospectus Directive and monitor issuers’ conformity on an ongoing basis with the Transparency Directive, Market Abuse Directive and other EU requirements. Once approved by the UKLA, securities must also meet the Exchange’s Admission and Disclosure Standards in order to be admitted to trading on dedicated segments of the Exchange’s next-generation trading services, SETS and SETSqx. Specialist Fund Market securities will not be included in the FTSE UK Index Series and will therefore not be included in index tracker funds.

For further information, please contact:

London Stock Exchange:

Catherine Mattison  Press Office + 44 (0) 20 7797 1222
                             newsroom@londonstockexchange.com
 
Notes to editors:

    * The Specialist Fund Market will be open for new admissions from November 2007. For further information about the Market, please go to: www.londonstockexchange.com/specialistfundmarket
    * industry comment follows below:

Steven Whittaker, Partner, Simmons & Simmons:

“We believe this is a very positive step forward for both issuers and investors. Establishing a separate market for sophisticated structures such as single strategy hedge funds and feeder funds provides the sophisticated investors who want to access these strategies with the ability to do so through London’s highly liquid markets, while at the same time ensuring a clarity about the regulatory standards and potential risks that does not prevail on other markets currently open to UK investors.”

Julie Spellman Sweet, Partner, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP:

"We are excited to offer Cravath's U.S. and international clients the opportunity to effect a London-based offering and trade over the London Stock Exchange's new Specialist Fund Market. This innovative platform will have numerous advantages for private equity and hedge fund sponsors seeking a flexible, liquid market."

Jonathan Baird, Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer:

“The new Specialist Fund Market is a significant innovation by the London Stock Exchange and will be very interesting for investment companies and managers seeking to raise capital from sophisticated investors, including many who may not currently be actively considering London as a trading market.”
 
Nigel Farr, Partner, Herbert Smith LLP:

"We believe this is a positive and pragmatic step forward. It recognises that there will be managers proposing to launch private equity funds, hedge funds and funds of hedge funds who wish to access the highly liquid London markets but need the regulatory flexibility that the EU standards allow, and that there will be institutional and professional investors willing to invest on this basis."

Tim Harvey-Samuel, Managing Director, Equity Capital Markets, Citi:

"We are aware of substantial demand amongst international issuers who want to raise money in London given the investor concentration and liquidity here. The new Specialist Fund Market offers them that opportunity and should prove of considerable interest. "