The new site is an actual news portal designed and run exclusively for a group of active companies in co-operation with a communications company. The portal will be called the "Plus Portal" and may be visited via the domain name www.plus-portal.dk from January next year.
It is the two market segments MidCap+ and SmallCap+ (a total of 50 companies), which will now have their own portal with daily journalistic news coverage and investor relations information.
"Since the launch on 1 April this year, the constituent companies of the two plus segments have to a greater degree attracted the investors' attention. The increasing interest has improved liquidity in the plus shares - the daily trading volume has, for instance, risen by 87 per cent compared with the first quarter of 2003. And we wish to give the plus shares a boost", said President and CEO Hans-Ole Jochumsen, Copenhagen Stock Exchange.
"The establishment of a news portal for a group of active companies is a breakthrough for the stock exchange world and at the turn of the year, these companies may have a daily and very direct dialogue with their investors and the press. Frequent and good communication will intensify the focus on these companies. The current and journalistic information at the Plus-Portal will moreover give the companies a more human face. The Plus Portal is established to support communication between the companies and the investors", said Senior Vice President Peter Belling, Copenhagen Stock Exchange.
The companies, the Exchange and Jøp, Ove & Myrthu have developed a model for how to render the plus companies more visible and this process brought about the idea of a new portal.
"The aim of the Plus Portal is to increase the knowledge of the companies in the two market segments so that they will capture the interest of the media and analysts as naturally as the KFX companies. The ambition is that investors and investment advisers will be just as mindful of these shares as of the KFX shares", said CEO and partner Jens Erik Karlskov Jensen, Jøp, Ove & Myrthu A/S.
"We want to make a portal that is so alive that the different stakeholders will want to visit it several times during the day. The portal is to bring the companies closer to the investors. This is the place where they will get information about the plus companies and the plus segments", he continued.
President and CEO Erik Sørensen, Chr. Hansen said: "As a MidCap+ company I consider it a good initiative. From the beginning, we have backed the Exchange's effort to generate more energy to Danish equities to the benefit of Danish shareholders. The division into MidCap+ and SmallCap+ has already generated increased interest in this group of companies on the stock market, and I am convinced that this will produce yet another push in the right direction".
The Plus Portal will contain journalistic news coverage on a daily basis and IR-related updates primarily on the companies that have registered for this new service. It will contain news and data on all the constituents of the plus segments, but with special focus on the participating companies. It will also provide daily stock comments, official lists, a calendar of investor events, and extensive basic information which is comparable across companies will also be a part of the Plus Portal.
Much of this information is available on the Internet today, but to retrieve it, you would have to visit different sites.
"We welcome the new news medium because we believe that it will generate more interest in the life of our company with all its interesting aspects. In our opinion, visibility - for better or for worse - serves our customers, shareholders and employees best", said CEO Per W. Hallgren, Jeudan.
"The portal gathers all the information that a journalist, an analyst or an investor needs. Our ambition is to set a new standard for on-line data from listed companies. The Plus Portal will comprise all the relevant information3/3 about the plus companies - a giant leap forward for both investors and journalists", said Communication Consultant Esben Høstager, who is a partner of Jøp, Ove & Myrthu A/S.
