The percentage of votes in favour of the proposal to demutualise at each of the five Scheme meetings of Members and at an Extraordinary General Meeting of Full Members were as follows:
Temporary Local Members: 95.39%
Associate Members: 92.22%
Local Members: 97.06%
Full Members: 100.00%
All Members: 95.52%
EGM of Full Members: 100.00%
There are 366 eligible Members.
Announcing the emphatic result, Mr Rick Holliday-Smith, Chairman of SFE said: "The SFE Board is delighted with today's endorsement by our Members that demutualisation is a positive step forward and in the best interests of SFE's future.
"Demutualisation will allow SFE to adopt a broader market access policy, improve our ability to form strategic relationships and enhance our capacity to manage our business and add value. The decision taken by Members today will provide SFE with the flexibility to meet the challenges of a changing financial markets environment and matches the Board's strategy of continuing to develop SFE as a leading exchange in the Asia Pacific."
SFE will now pursue the necessary court and regulatory approvals for the demutualisation proposal. As explained in the Information Memorandum, SFE shares will be traded on an exempt market conducted by Austock. Rules for the operation of an exempt market will be distributed to Members once the approval process is complete. Members will continue to be informed as to the progress towards demutualisation.
If the approvals are forthcoming, the indicative timetable as set out in the Information Memorandum targets a completion date by the middle of September 2000.
