Frankfurt Börse Announces New Market Segmentation: FQB to Close

Company Secretarial services provider and corporate support firm London Registrars (http://www.london-registrars.co.uk/) reports on the announcement earlier this month by the Deutsche Börse Group that the First Quotation Board (FQB) segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is set to close.

On 6 February, 2010 the Deutsche Börse Group announced new market segmentation plans for the Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (FWB®, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange). The lowest level of listing on the Frankfurt Börse, the FQB, will be closed as of March to new clients, while existing companies listed on the FQB will be forced to transfer into the next level up in September, although they will be given 6 months to prepare the necessary additional requirements, such as a Prospectus.

In a formal letter, the Deutsche Börse Group stated the reasoning behind the decision to close the FQB was “in order to protect the capital market and particularly the investors and significantly impede market manipulation and fraud”. An examination into the FQB by the Deutsche Börse, the Hessian Exchange Supervisory Authority and the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority found “massive and frequent cases of suspected market manipulation”, prompting the decision to discontinue this financing segment of the Frankfurt Börse. The Deutsche Börse Group claim that the closing of the FQB will “protect and further improve transparency, quality and efficiency of the overall market, thereby ensuring continual raising of capital and tradability of securities.”

Clients of company secretary service provider London Registrars who planned to list on the FQB will have full support and guidance as to the best course of action for them. In most cases it will be transferring to one of the other three financing segments of the Frankfurt Börse, Prime Standard (PS) and General Standard (GS) in Regulated Market and Entry Standard (ES) in Open Market, while some clients may prefer to transfer to the Berlin Börse with a second listing in Frankfurt. Regardless, the highly experienced legal and corporate support team at London Registrars is on hand to assist existing and new clients affected by the FQB closure with a smooth transition.

To find out information on the full range of services available from London Registrars visit the website at http://www.london-registrars.co.uk/.

Editor’s Note: London Registrars (http://www.london-registrars.co.uk/) is represented by the search engine advertising and digital marketing specialists Jumping Spider Media. Please direct all press queries to Louise Byrne. Email: louise@jumpingspidermedia.co.uk or call: +44 (0)20 3070 1959 / +34 952 783 637.