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SIX Swiss Exchange is launching a visibility initiative for listed small and medium-sized companies. The offer supports companies in expanding their market presence and perception among key stakeholders.
One of the most important reasons for being listed on a stock exchange is access to the financial market and growth capital. To be able to use capital markets effectively, companies do, however, need to have a minimum trading liquidity volume. Shares of small and medium-sized companies are often less liquid for a variety of reasons, such as the partially insufficient information flow to the relevant capital market participants.
The new «Stage» program launched by SIX Swiss Exchange picks up at that very point and supports listed companies in increasing their visibility and achieving a consistent evaluation. Issuers can choose from a variety of «visibility» offers. The offer is based on a regularly updated fact sheet compiled by Morningstar, as well as training organized by SIX Swiss Exchange and specific, target-group relevant information. In addition to the basic offer, listed companies can obtain research coverage through SIX Swiss Exchange which is provided by established Swiss banks Bank am Bellevue, Vontobel and Zürcher Kantonalbank.
To avoid potential conflicts of interest, neither issuers nor the banks have any influence on the distribution of the research mandate; this is done at random. In addition, a research committee has been set up by SIX Swiss Exchange in order to take into account the interests of the various parties. It currently comprises two representatives of companies listed on the SIX Exchange, an investor, an academic representative, as well as two SIX employees. It is an advisory body of SIX Swiss Exchange.
Chris Landis, Division CEO SIX Swiss Exchange: «We are very happy to be able to offer this new, attractive program to our issuers, which enables them to put themselves in the spotlight for relevant stakeholders. We consider this part of our duty and responsibility toward the Swiss financial centre. And in the three banks and Morningstar, we were able to win proven experts and respected partners for this enterprise.»
You can find further information on the Stage program at: www.six-swiss-exchange.com/stage
