Neuer Markt Enters Year 2000 With 200 Companies On Board - 200th Company Is French - 1999 Record Year On Neuer Markt - Biggest Growth Market In Europe

With the listing of the French company Integra on Tuesday, Neuer Markt now has 200 companies on board. The large number of new issues from Germany and abroad in 1999, as well as the market capitalization, stock-exchange turnover and issue volumes, have made 1999 a record year for Neuer Markt. The Neuer Markt segment is far and away the leading growth market in Europe. In 1999, for the first time, over 160 companies went public in a single year at FWB, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. With 139 new issues, Neuer Markt made a substantial contribution to this record. Neuer Markt is by far the leading IPO platform in Europe. The cumulative issue volume since the market launch of this growth segment at Deutsche Börse has grown to more than 10 billion euros. The size of Neuer Markt is also reflected in the growth of market capitalization, amounting to some 85 billion euros today. In 1999, the Neuer Markt thus achieved a share of more than 80 percent of the market capitalization of all European growth markets. In turnover, Neuer Markt concentrated about 85 percent of the European total. The rise in the number of companies based outside Germany, from eight to 32 in 1999, is a distinct sign of the Neuer Markt's increasing internationalization. According to Deutsche Börse, the number of potential IPOs from other countries is still high, with a large number of inquiries, especially from the US, the UK and France. Another sign of the internationalization of Neuer Markt is the inclusion of six Neuer Markt stocks in the broad Dow Jones STOXX indices (Consors, EM.TV, Mobilcom, Intershop, Aixtron and Medion). The level of investments from abroad is also on the rise. Whereas the market was still being used largely by national investors in 1997, Deutsche Börse estimates indicate that about 20 percent of the trading volume is of non-German origin in the meantime. This trend is rapidly gaining momentum, also due to the expanding share of the volume traded on the Xetra trading system, accessible Europe-wide, which now accounts for 33 percent of the turnover in Neuer Markt stocks.