SWX Segment For Real Estate Companies

As of May 1, shares of real estate companies will be traded on the SWX Swiss Exchange in their own market segment. In the real estate companies segment, shares will be listed of those firms that concentrate primarily on direct or indirect investments in real property or provide real estate related services.

This new segment is intended as a means of providing transparent and verifiable valuation standards for the shares of real estate companies.

The main features of the additional rules that have been adopted for the listing of such companies are:

• The entry barriers have been lowered in comparison to the listing requirements of issuers in the main trading segment, in that the "3-year rule" has been waived.
• The listing prospectus must contain particularly detailed information on the properties held, as well as in regard to the valuation methods and taxes.
• New, more extensive disclosure obligations are required for regular financial reporting (such as the current value of the real estate portfolio, as well as disclosure of the assessors and the valuation methods applied).

The additional rules for listing in this segment can be accessed at www.swx.com/admission/listing_rules_en.html.

With the introduction of the real estate companies segment, trading on SWX will now be distributed across a total of five segments, each with its own set of listing rules that takes into account the specific characteristics of the industries traded in the given segment. In addition to the traditional main segment, there is a separate segment for investment companies, for the SWX New Market, for Local Caps, and now one specifically for real estate companies, as defined in additional rules to those that apply to the main segment.