In his introductory comments Brian Williamson, LIFFE's Chairman, referred to the accelerated development of LIFFE's new automated trading system, LIFFE CONNECT ™, which now trades all LIFFE's financial products. He announced that in just eight months distribution of LIFFE CONNECT™ has accelerated from being available only in the UK to being available in seventeen countries, providing access to more than 12,000 traders across all time zones. And every month, LIFFE is offering access to another 300 to 500 new traders, providing them with a choice of trading solutions on a world-beating electronic trading system.
Brian Williamson said, "In March we announced that we are seeking to exploit LIFFE CONNECT™ with other organisations. I am pleased to say that we are now in the final stages of the decision-making process and I look forward to informing you of the selection decision in the near future.
As shareholders you have seen a turnaround from a low-point in LIFFE's market capitalisation of around £30million in January last year to just short of £90million today.
As you can see looking back over the year, we had to re-invent the Exchange, and we will be re-inventing the Exchange again this year. I believe we will be able to present to you, as shareholders, some interesting opportunities over the months ahead that were undreamt of at this point last year."
At the AGM three directors were elected to the Board following a ballot of shareholders:- Gary Anderson re -elected (Deutsche Bank AG London); Peter Koster re-elected (MeesPierson ICS); Michael McErlean elected (Goldman Sachs Futures Services).
At the meeting, resolutions were approved as part of the continuing process of moving the Company towards a conventional plc structure; major changes included allowing the Company's shares to be eligible for settlement in Crest and increasing the limitation on the voting rights of any one shareholder from 10% to 20%.
