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Oslo Børs And London Stock Exchange Group Agree Strategic Partnership

Date 12/03/2009

Oslo Børs and London Stock Exchange Group have entered into a strategic partnership agreement to co-operate across their equities, fixed income and derivatives markets with a view to improving market efficiency and liquidity. As part of the agreement, London Stock Exchange Group will provide Oslo Bors with TradElect for its equities and fixed income markets and the SOLA® trading platform, under licence from TMX Group, for its derivatives markets.

Bente A. Landsnes, Chief Executive Officer of Oslo Børs, said:

“We are excited about this agreement and the opportunities it creates for developing further the Norwegian securities market. This is a natural development for Oslo Børs, increasing our distribution network throughout Europe. We believe this partnership will enhance both liquidity and the general interest in our market. By combining our complementary strengths, both exchanges will gain from the partnership, helping us better serve our customers.”

Clara Furse, Chief Executive of London Stock Exchange Group, said:

“We are delighted to be forging an important strategic relationship with Oslo Børs. We look forward to co-operating with them to expand the reach of our combined Nordic derivatives markets and enabling Norwegian cash equities and fixed income to be traded on TradElect, our internationally renowned trading platform. There is considerable scope for further co-operation and we look forward to working with our colleagues in Oslo to provide innovative, efficient and liquid markets for our customers.”<

Initially, the strategic partnership will include:

Equities & Fixed Income

  • The use of TradElect and a harmonised trading model will increase access to the London, Milan and Oslo markets for cash equities. The potential for cross membership between the three exchange will also be explored
  • The migration of the Oslo Børs cash equities and fixed income markets to TradElect will take place in the first quarter of 2010, subject to client readiness
  • Oslo Børs will use Infolect, an integrated part of TradElect, for dissemination of market data

Derivatives

  • The Oslo and EDX London derivatives markets will both use the state-of-the art, derivatives trading technology SOLA which has been licensed to London Stock Exchange Group by TMX Group
  • The partnership will build on the existing Nordic Derivatives link in place since 1997, including the operation of shared order books and joint product development in the Nordic market
  • The migration of the Oslo Børs and EDX derivatives market will take place in November 2009, subject to client readiness

Co-operation in market surveillance and regulation

  • London Stock Exchange Group and Oslo Bors will work closely on market surveillance, including related technological co-operation
  • The two companies also anticipate co-operation in areas such as regulatory policy, operational regulatory processes and the sharing of market information for regulatory purposes

Migration to theTradElect and SOLA trading systems is likely to involve project costs for Oslo Børs of just over NOK 60 million. Assuming the levels of trading volume and trading revenue for Oslo Børs in 2008, the annual cost of using TradElect and Sola would be around the same level as the cost of using the current trading systems