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Deutsche Börse looked back on two positive years of the Entry Standard segment for small and medium-sized companies on Thursday. Based on current market capitalization of around €9.5 billion, the Entry Standard is the largest alternative capital market in continental Europe. The average market capitalization per company stands at around €88 million.
Currently, 109 companies are listed on the Entry Standard, including 8 companies from Switzerland, Luxembourg, Italy and Canada. Small and medium-sized companies, in particular, consider and value the Entry Standard as a flexible and straightforward form of access to the capital market because of its lower transparency requirements and lower costs. Five companies have already used the segment as a cost-effective means of gaining an initial foothold on the stock exchange, before moving to the more highly regulated General Standard or Prime Standard. 24 companies have used the Entry Standard as a means of further development and moved over from the Open Market. Meanwhile, 24 banks support Entry Standard companies on the stock exchange and monitor the transparency requirements.
Since the Entry Standard was launched, the trend towards market access with prospectus preparation has continued: around 80 percent of new entrants to the Entry Standard have chosen a public offering and thus an EU issuing prospectus.
The Entry Standard is open to all sectors, with companies primarily coming from the financial services (25), technology (12) und real estate (10) industries. Entry Standard companies are of particular interest to qualified investors; on average, over 86 percent of the issue volume has been placed with institutional investors that have specialized in small and medium-sized companies, in particular.
“With over 100 companies, the Entry Standard has proven successful and has gained a firm footing after only two years. Studies have shown that the segment offers a high degree of liquidity and transparency, as well as low capital costs in comparison to other alternative European markets. The segment complements the more highly regulated General Standard and Prime Standard segments meaning that we can offer companies and investors three customized market segments,” said Rainer Riess, Managing Director Cash Market Development.
