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NASDAQ OMX Baltic Partners To Form The First Institutional Equity Research Company In The Baltics

Date 28/05/2009

NASDAQ OMX’s exchanges in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius, part of The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ), announced today the establishment of Emerging Nordic Research.  It is the Baltic region’s first independent institutional equity research company founded with the explicit aim of serving institutional investors.

The company’s Managing Director Ivars Bergmanis has more than 20 years of global financial market experience. The three Baltic exchanges will own 17 percent each respectively and Ivars Bergmanis will be the single largest shareholder with a 49 percent stake of the company.

Despite the general availability of research suitable for retail investors, there is clearly a shortage of comprehensive analysis that meets the particular needs of professional, institutional investors," says Ivars Bergmanis, Managing Director of Emerging Nordic Research. "The Baltics are a part of Northern Europe and have strong ties to the other ‘traditional’ Nordic countries.  I believe the Baltic region can ultimately bounce back to robust rates of economic growth as before the financial meltdown."

Emerging Nordic Research will focus on the leading companies traded on the NASDAQ OMX Baltic exchanges, with the first reports scheduled for this summer. The research will only be available to institutional and professional investors and will concentrate on investment ideas, not the usual investment recommendations of buy, sell and hold. Revenues will be generated primarily through commission sharing agreements between the client and the agency executing trades, as well as bespoke research services. The shareholder agreement includes principles that guarantee the company’s day-to-day independence from the exchanges.

Hans-Ole Jochumsen, Executive Vice President and President NASDAQ OMX Nordic said, "The idea of setting up an independent research company dedicated to covering the Baltic markets, with the goal of improving liquidity levels, has been in our minds for some time. This seemed a suitable time to take our idea into action and we expect this to be beneficial for all market participants."