Deutsche Börse: Dutch Segment Starts November 12. "Xetra Dutch Stars" Tradable With Round Lot Of One/Eurex Already Successful In Trading Of Dutch Equity Options/Trading Fees Waived Until April

Deutsche Börse will initiate trading in Dutch equities on Xetra on November 12. The new segment will contain all seven Dutch stocks in the Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50 index, the so-called "Xetra Dutch Stars": ABN Amro Holding NV, AEGON NV, Koninklijke Ahold NV, ING Groep NV, Philips Electronics, Royal Dutch Petroleum and Unilever NV. After the US segment, the Dutch segment is the second market that Deutsche Börse and Eurex are setting up within the framework of the Global Markets Concept. Equity options on all Xetra Dutch Stars are listed at Eurex, as well as on Koninklijke KPN NV as the eighth Dutch equity option.

Deutsche Börse has enlisted the support of the Dutch securities trading houses Van der Moolen and AOT Stock Specialist as Dutch Market Experts, who continuously quote binding bid and ask prices for a minimum value of 50,000 euros per quote. The smallest order size in Xetra Dutch Stars is one share.

Eurex, the international derivatives market, has been offering options on Dutch equities since last year; in October 2001, some 100,000 contracts were traded in this segment, roughly triple the volume traded in October the year before. The most-active contracts in this segment were the options on Philips, Royal Dutch and KPN, which are among the most heavily traded international stock options.

As an added incentive for the expansion of trading in Dutch equity options, Eurex will waive the transaction fees for these contracts until April next year. This is intended to further enhance liquidity at Eurex, the leading trading system for international equity options in Europe. Eleven Eurex Market Makers provide for underlying liquidity in the Dutch equity options.