EU-Compatible Listing Segment For Swiss Blue Chips

The SWX Swiss Exchange has adopted new Additional Rules for the listing of Swiss blue chips on SWX. Accordingly, the SWX takes into account the revised EU regulations applicable to the Swiss blue chip stocks traded on virt-x. The new rules will enter into force on 1 July 2005.

The new additional rules take into consideration the latest relevant EU directives and the corresponding UK implementation measures. SWX plans to introduce two separate virt-x trading segments on 1 July 2005 – the EU Regulated Market Segment, which will be subject to the newly applicable EU regulations; and the UK Exchange Regulated Market Segment, in which the currently valid regulatory obligations for Swiss issuers will be generally maintained.

From a legal point of view, those issuers whose shares are to be traded in the EU Regulated Market Segment will be allocated to the SWX "EU-compatible" Segment, while issuers whose shares are traded in the UK Exchange Regulated Segment will, as was the case before, belong to the main trading segment of SWX. Based on the SWX Additional Rules for Listing in the "EU-compatible" Segment, two SWX Directives have been approved to govern the procedure for listing and admission to trading as well as the disclosure obligations of issuers.

On 1 July 2005, when the new EU Prospectus Directive will be implemented, all Swiss shares traded today on virt-x will migrate to the EU Regulated Market Segment. The affected companies will incur no new obligations as a result of this change. Additional obligations will only arise for issuers in that segment if they conduct a capital increase that exceeds more than 10 % of their previously issued capital. If in such an instance the given issuer remains in the EU Regulated Market Segment, it will have to publish a prospectus in accordance with the "EU-compatible" provisions. The submission of such a prospectus is equivalent to a formal request to become subject to all relevant EU directives – even in terms of maintained listing – and validates the regulatory competency of the Financial Services Authority.

The affected companies at all times have the opportunity to have their shares traded in the newly established UK Exchange Regulated Market Segment in which all existing SWX listing regulations will remain applicable in the same way as they are for all other companies listed in the main trading segment of SWX.