Irish Stock Exchange Publishes Review Of 2015

ISE tops global rankings with 27,124 bond and 7,123 investment fund listings
New equity listings - four IPOs raise €980m
ISEQ rises 30% while equity trading reaches record highs
New IPOready programme supports high potential entrepreneurs
ISE Chief Executive becomes President of European exchanges
ISE announces plans for significant corporate HQ investment to facilitate growth

The Irish Stock Exchange’s review of 2015 published today shows another successful year for the ISE and its markets. With more than 34,300 securities listed from over 80 countries on its markets, the ISE is now ranked #1 for listing bonds and investment funds worldwide. Its equity markets saw four companies raise €980m in international funds through initial public offering (IPO) while the ISEQ rose 30%.

Chief Executive, Deirdre Somers said that the ISE performed extremely well in 2015 across all its business lines and staff numbers rose by 10% to facilitate this growth.

“2015 was an exceptional year for the ISE. The number of securities listed on our markets rose by 6% and we consolidated our position as the number one provider of listing services to debt and investment fund issuers around the globe. Trading levels were up across equity and Irish Government bond markets and the ISE continues to be the dominant pool of trading in Irish shares.

We are delighted with the positive feedback we have received from candidates on our IPOready programme. ISE Fund Hub is gaining traction with both investment fund managers and professional investors and there is strong market interest in our proposals for a new fund market offering. We are looking forward to building future scale for our business through our new HQ.”

ISE ranks #1 globally for bond listings and leads new bond listing figures for 2015

Statistics released by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) in early December show the ISE is the #1 centre for listing bonds worldwide. At the end of 2015, the ISE had 27,124 debt securities (including Irish Government related securities) on its two bond markets – the Global Exchange Market (8,607 listings) and Main Securities Market (18,517).
The ISE is also the world leader in terms of new bond listings according to WFE’s figures and had 7,219 new debt securities listed during 2015 (2014: 7,013).
Among the 551 new issuers joining the ISE’s debt markets were global corporates, sovereigns and financial institutions. New listings during the year included:
- Irish international diagnostics company, Trinity Biotech ($100m) and insurance provider FBD (€70m),
- The Spanish retailer Hipercor (€600m) and Holdikks SAS which owns the premium French brand IKKS and has 2,000 retail stores across Europe (€320m),
- Airlines Alitalia (€375m) and Iberia (€150.4m),
- TDC, the largest telecommunications company in Denmark (€1.55bn) and Danica Pension, the pension and insurance subsidiary of Danske Bank (€500m),
- Faurecia SA, a subsidiary of Peugeot (€500m) and car manufacturer, Dongfeng Motor Hong Kong International (€500m),
- A number of bonds from Portuguese bank Novo Banco issued under its €10bn covered bonds programme,
- US conglomerate, Kraft Heinz, (£400m and €750m) and DirecTV, the US entertainment group (£1.1bn and €500m), and
- Mexican oil company Pemex, one of the largest companies in Latin America, (Ps 25.3bn) and the Mexican federal electricity commission (Ps 18.5bn).

ISE attains #1 position worldwide for funds listing and extends its fund services offering

WFE statistics also show the ISE’s is the #1 centre for listing investment funds globally with 7,123 fund and ETF classes (2014: 7,367) now listed on its markets.
New fund classes listed amounted to 1,405 and included Van Eck Global, one of the largest providers of ETFs in the US, which chose to list its first Market Vectors UCITS ETFs in Europe on the ISE.
ISE Fund Hub, launched in late 2014, has achieved steady growth in 2015 with over 40 investment managers with ISE listed funds now hosting their fund information on this portal. Providing information such as net asset values (NAVs), key fund documents, news and extensive performance based analytics to professional investors, the ISE plans to extend this service in 2016.
The ISE also has plans, subject to regulatory approval, to extend its Global Exchange Market (GEM) to include investment funds. The GEM currently lists debt instruments only.

New equity listings - four IPOs raise €980m

Companies trading on the Irish Stock Exchange raised €3,124m in equity funds from international investors during 2015. The four IPOs, from a range of sectors including life sciences, retail, banking and technology raised €980m.

Malin Corporation raised €330m in March in what was one of the largest life sciences’ IPOs ever to take place in Europe,
Applegreen, the major Irish and UK petrol retailer raised €70m,
Permanent TSB, rejoined the MSM with a €400m share raising, and
Hostelworld, the world’s leading hostel-focused online booking platform raised €180m.

ISEQ rises 30% while equity trading reaches record highs

A record year for equity trading shows 5.6m equity trades (+26%) were carried out on the ISE’s Main Securities Market and Enterprise Securities Market during 2015, building on the 30% growth achieved in 2014.
The ISEQ Overall Index stood at 6,792, up 30% during the year, and was one of the best performing indices in Europe. It has doubled in value over the past 3 years.
The ISEQ 20, which represents the 20 most liquid and largest companies on the ISE, rose by 30.7% over the year (105% gain over 3 years) and the international ETF provider, WisdomTree, is now offering global investors access to this index through its WisdomTree ISEQ 20 UCITS ETF.

IPOready supports high potential entrepreneurs and ESM Guide published

The ISE commenced its #IPOready programme to support entrepreneurs and companies preparing for a stock market listing in early 2016. IPOready is enhancing the knowledge and skills of CEOs and CFOs in raising capital, investor relations and business management.
The ISE launched its plain English guide to listing on its Enterprise Securities Market in November.

ISE Chief Executive becomes President of European exchanges

The ISE’s CEO, Deirdre Somers, was elected as the new President of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) in June. FESE represents 36 exchanges in 30 countries across Europe. The appointment, for a 3 year term, comes at a key time as Europe aims to create deeper and more integrated capital markets across the EU through Capital Markets Union (CMU).

ISE announces plans for significant corporate HQ investment and other highlights

In August, the ISE announced its intention to extend its corporate HQ to facilitate the expansion of its Irish and international businesses and increased staff numbers.
The ISE was named one of the best places to work in Ireland (6th place) and Europe (top 50) by the Great Place to Work Institute.
ISEdirect, the ISE's online services portal, was extended during 2015 to include online application of ISIN codes and to provide greater efficiency for investment managers submitting NAVs.
The ISE teamed up with 30 other exchanges in a WFE initiative to promote financial education and entrepreneurship skills among students.
The ISE extended its Deutsche Börse partnership through a deal with Scila Surveillance to enhance its market surveillance technology.
The ISE hosted the international ANNA conference in Dublin welcoming delegates from 52 countries. ANNA sets the global industry standard for codes enabling the identification of entities and securities internationally.
The ISE signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Exchange (KRX) to foster a long term relationship between the exchanges.