The Supervisory and Management Boards after appropriate evaluation will call an Extraordinary Shareholder meeting to approve the above-mentioned capital increase. Subscription of the shares is expected to occur after approximately 90 days from the Shareholder’s Meeting, once all the pre-conditions are met, including the approval by the Ministry of the Economy and Finance of Italy of the proposed changes to the MTS by-laws, which include amongst others, the cancellation of the 5% limit on any one shareholder’s equity participation in MTS’s capital.
The recapitalisation of MTS will dilute the combined holding owned by current shareholders to 49%. Following the recapitalisation exercise, shareholders that wish to dispose of all or part of their participation will have the right to sell their shares to existing shareholders in the first instance and, should any shares remain unsold, to European Primary Dealers, Single Market Specialists or MTS Primary Dealers in the second instance. Finally, the Euronext consortium has the contractual obligation to purchase any shares that are not acquired by existing shareholders or the aforementioned dealers.
Niels Thygesen, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of MTS S.p.A., commented: “We acknowledge the decision taken by the majority of our Shareholders which concludes a transparent procedure designed to ensure the continued expansion and success of MTS. We are delighted at the prospect of working in partnership with Euronext and Borsa Italiana in order to promote the ongoing growth of the MTS Group and further integration of Europe’s financial markets. The Euronext consortium’s strength in European equity markets and derivatives and MTS’s major presence in European fixed-income securities fully complement one another and place us in a strong position to achieve our objectives.”
MTS S.p.A. was incorporated in September 1997 with an issued share capital value of €6.2 million, equivalent to €51.65 per share. During subsequent years shareholders injected further capital of €12.9 million into MTS and its subsidiary EuroMTS, taking the total cash investment made by current shareholders to €19.1 million
Background:
MTS Group
- The MTS Group of companies collectively comprises Europe’s premier electronic market in fixed-income securities with average transaction volumes of 85 billion euros a day (single-counted). The MTS model utilises a common trading platform, although regulatory responsibility remains the province of the relevant domestic authorities.
- The MTS Group of companies include the following wholesale markets: EuroMTS, EuroCredit MTS, NewEuroMTS, EuroGlobalMTS, MTS Quasi-Government Market, Eurobenchmark Treasury Bills Market, EuroMTS Linkers Market, MTS Cedulas Market, MTS Amsterdam, MTS Austrian Market, MTS Belgium, MTS Denmark, MTS Deutschland, MTS España, MTS Finland, MTS France, MTS Greek Market, MTS Ireland, MTS Italy, MTS Poland and MTS Portugal.
- The Group also includes BondVision, the Internet-based multi-dealer-to-client platform and MTSNext, the company that manages the EuroMTS Indices, the first range of independent, transparent, real-time and tradable eurozone fixed income indices. Tradable products on the Telematico markets comprise Austrian, Belgian, Brazilian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Cypriot, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Lithuanian, Mexican, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovakian, Slovenian, South African, Spanish, Turkish and Venezuelan government bonds, quasi government bonds of EIB, KfW, Freddie Mac and CADES, Pfandbriefe, Obligations Foncières, Cédulas, Irish ACS and UK covered bonds.
- More information is available on www.mtsgroup.org