On Tuesday 28 July 2009, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange welcomed Shin Kong Financial Holding Co. Ltd, an important Taiwanese financial services provider.
The company’s Global Depository Share (GDS) issue was admitted to trading on the Exchange. This GDS issue was comprised of 42,088,000 GDSs (ISIN: US82455T2033) each representing 25 common shares of the company. The proceeds of the issue, amounting to USD 294.72 million, will be used to enhance the capital position of one of its subsidiary companies, Shin Kong Life.
This issue came just one day after the listing of two Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) from Indian companies. This means that to date in 2009, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange has listed nine depositary issues for an amount of more than USD 974.09 million. The Luxembourg Stock Exchange now has 219 listing lines of GDRs, and related securities such as GDSs, for 201 issuers from 18 countries worldwide.
GDRs and GDSs are instruments that represent shares in underlying issuing companies and are particularly useful for companies in emerging markets by enabling them to have access to foreign capital markets. For investors, mainly institutional, such instruments are often the simplest means to invest in a specific share without buying them at local level. The Luxembourg Stock Exchange was the first European exchange to list a GDR and has experience in depositary receipts and depositary shares going back to the 1960’s.
