virt-x Preliminary Results For The Year Ended 31 March 2001

virt-x plc group, the operator of the virt-x pan-European blue chip exchange, announced today its preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2001.

Key financials for the year:

• Revenue up 95% on the previous year to £ 2.9 million
• Ongoing operating costs up by £2.6 million to £ 11.8 million, due mainly to the higher costs of running Tradepoint's European equities market
• Operating exceptional items of £ 9.3 million, comprising:
  • £ 2.4 million for developing Tradepoint's European Equities service
  • £ 2.8 million for establishing the virt-x platform using SWX Trading System
  • £ 4.1 million for closing the Tradepoint platform
• Write down of goodwill on purchase of rights over Swiss blue chip trading from SWX Swiss Stock Exchange of £ 85.7 million
• Pre- and post-tax loss (including the goodwill write down) of £ 103.6 million (2000: £ 8.5 million)
• Underlying pre-tax loss of £ 8.6 million compares on a like-for-like basis with a loss of £ 7.4 million in previous year
• Additional finance through exercise of warrants and options by the TP Consortium of £ 10.7 million

Operational highlights and current year to date

• Creation of the virt-x pan-European blue chip exchange in conjunction with SWX Swiss Exchange and the TP Consortium
• Establishment of benchmark co-operative pan-European settlement model with CREST, SIS and Euroclear
• Successful completion of virt-x market testing and member readiness checks
• Connectivity solutions agreed with 24 independent software vendors, including Reuters and Bloomberg
• Launch of the virt-x pan-European blue-chip exchange, offering trading in the 620 constituents of the major pan-European indices in a phased launch from 25 June 2001
• Number of member firms 115 (Tradepoint - 111 )
• Key trading statistics since launch of virt-x on 25 June 2001:
  • Average daily turnover: £ 1,029 million (£ 21 million)
  • Average daily number of trades - total: 26,260 (126)
  • Average daily number of trades - non-Swiss equities: 1,340 (126)

    ( Data is for order book trading, whilst the equivalent numbers for Tradepoint Europe are for the period from 10 July 2000 to 31 March 2001.)

• Additional finance since 31 March 2001 from TP Consortium of £ 8.66 million through the exercise of warrants and options and of £ 13.65 million under Limited Recourse Facility Agreements

  (The Limited Recourse Facility Agreements are individual loans provided by ten members of the TP Consortium which, if not repaid by offset against trading fees over an eighteen month period, are forfeited by the lender.)

Commenting on the results and on the progress made during the year Antoinette Hunziker-Ebneter, CEO of virt-x plc, said: "This has been a year of transformation where we have seen the establishment of the first pan-European equity platform and the migration to the new virt-x market, which was successfully launched on 25 June 2001.

Support from the members of the TP Consortium and the Swiss banking community has helped us to establish consistent trading volumes in European equities, with an average of 1,340 trades per day in non-Swiss stocks.

As the merits of our straight through processing model for equities trading are increasingly recognised by the investment community, we look forward to continuing this growth and achieving both our first year target of 10% market share of European blue chip trading and operating profitability".