Wiener Börse: As Of 1 November 2007, Third Market No Longer Regulated By Stock Exchange Act

As of 1 November 2007, the Unregulated Third Market will no longer be covered by the Stock Exchange Act: as of this time it shall be considered a Multilateral Trading System (MTF). Securities that have been admitted to trading on the unregulated Third Market up to now will continue to be traded as of 1 November 2007 on the MTF operated by Wiener Börse AG in continuation of the Unregulated Third Market. This change is based on the passage of the EU Directive on Markets in Financial Instruments (MiFID) into Austrian law that differentiates only between the operation of regulated markets and the operation of Multilateral Trading Systems. This implies major changes for companies and investors: The operation of an MTF is not part of exchange trading and therefore the requirements of the Stock Exchange Act regarding financial instruments admitted to trading on a regulated market (especially obligations imposed on issuers) do not apply to the financial instruments traded on an MTF. The Third Market Rules of Wiener Börse AG will apply.

In the future, Wiener Börse will differentiate between the operation of regulated markets and the operation of the Third Market as an MTF. The regulated markets comprise the Official Market and the Semi-official Market on Wiener Börse. “The market segmentation on Wiener Börse will remain a segmentation by product for the sake of simplicity.  This means that we will continue to group the financial instruments traded into segments by specific categories such as equities or derivatives – irrespective of whether a financial instrument has been admitted to listing on a regulated market or is being traded on a Multilateral Trading System,” explained Dr. Heinrich Schaller, Member of the Management Board of Wiener Börse AG. Only the prime market, the standard market and the derivatives market will list shares and certificates representing shares as well as options and financial futures contracts admitted to listing on a regulated market. All other market segments will be able to include financial instruments admitted to trading on a regulated market as well as financial instruments included in the Third Market as an MTF.

In the future, private investors will have to be specifically informed that the companies included in the Third Market are no longer subject to the Stock Exchange Act and are not trading on a stock exchange. Wiener Börse has met this requirement by clearly pointing out the difference between the regulated markets and the MTF as of 1 November in all of its publications. “We have made a great effort to point out very clearly to every user of our website (www.wienerborse.at) whether they are querying data of a company listed on a regulated market or of a company included in the MTF,” said Mr. Schaller.

Inclusion in the Third Market

There is a major change for companies in the Third Market according to Mr. Michael Buhl, Joint CEO of Wiener Börse AG: “As of 1 November 2007, there will no longer be any formal admission procedures, but rather only the inclusion in the MTF by the management board of Wiener Börse. This inclusion is based on the Third Market Rules.” The requirements for inclusion of financial instruments will remain essentially the same with the one exception already mentioned: there will no longer be any formal admission promulgated by Official Notice under the oversight of the Exchange Commissioner.

All financial instruments, which have been admitted to the Unregulated Third Market up to now, will continue to be traded on the Third Market – as an MTF – also after 1 November without requiring a renewed inclusion by Wiener Börse.