London Stock Exchange offers new fast-track admission route for smaller Swedish companies

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE OFFERS NEW FAST-TRACK ADMISSION ROUTE FOR SMALLER SWEDISH COMPANIES STOCKHOLM, 28 May 2003 - As part of its drive to attract Swedish and other international companies, the London Stock Exchange today introduced a new fast-track admission route to AIM, its market for smaller, growing companies. Companies already on the main list of Stockholmsbörsen - and eight other exchanges - will now be able to use their existing annual report and accounts as a basis for a complementary quotation on AIM. The Exchange expects the new route to make it considerably easier and faster for smaller Swedish listed companies to access institutional investors in London as well as wider international capital markets. This means companies can diversify their investor base and access an additional pool of capital to their home market. Marcus Hamberg, Nordic Regional Manager at the London Stock Exchange's Stockholm office, said: "There are investors and capital ready for Swedish companies in London. If a company has already gone through a due diligence process on Stockholmsbörsen, that can now help them access London's benefits via AIM. This initiative continues our rolling programme of innovative measures to make AIM more accessible to Swedish and other Nordic and international companies." Eight Swedish companies are currently on the London Stock Exchange's markets. There are also 18 Exchange-approved nominated advisers committed to helping Swedish companies join AIM. AIM has been a success story against a global backdrop of lacklustre IPO markets in recent years. In 2002, there were 97 IPOs on the Exchange's markets, of which 60 were on AIM, representing 46 per cent of all the IPOs in western Europe for the year. For further information, please contact: Ian Campbell or Huw Gott, Press Office +44 (0)20 7797 1222 icampbell@londonstockexchange.com or hgott@londonstockexchange.com Notes to editors: Companies that can take advantage of the fast-track route to AIM are those already listed on the main markets of the Australian Stock Exchange, Euronext, Deutsche Börse, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, NYSE, Stockholmsbörsen, Swiss Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange. London Stock Exchange-approved nominated advisers will play an important role advising 'fast-track' companies, thereby maintaining AIM's well- respected standards of regulation. At the end of April 2003 there were 705 companies on AIM with a total market capitalisation of £10.0 billion. Of these, 51 were international companies, with a combined market capitalisation of £1.2 billion. More information and statistics for AIM can be found on the Exchange's website at www.londonstockexchange.com/aim More information about the Exchange's Swedish business - including a list of the 18 nominated advisers committed to helping bring Swedish companies to AIM - can be found on the Exchange's Nordic website at: www.londonstockexchange.com/nordic ...more/ The Exchange made the changes to the AIM Rules to allow fast-track access in response to market demand and after a full and open consultation. Procedures are in place for approving other AIM Designated Markets in due course. In most cases 'fast-track' companies will not need to produce an AIM admission document, since they will use their existing annual reports and accounts as a basis for admission instead. However, companies using the new route are required to: *have been traded on one of the nine AIM Designated Markets for at least 18 months. *give a minimum 20 business days' notice to the market that they intend to join, instead of the usual 10 days. The notice should include any further information required under AIM disclosure rules, which has not already been disclosed in the home market. *join the market within 9 calendar months of their financial year-end. *appoint and retain a London Stock Exchange-approved nominated adviser (nomad). *have their nomad perform any additional due diligence and warrant that they are suitable for AIM. *abide by AIM's ongoing disclosure obligations once they are on the market. *have an address or website address where any announcements the company has made during the last two years are available. (Only for public announcements and documents published as a consequence of the company's securities being traded.) Full details of the new rules can be found on the Exchange's website at www.londonstockexchange.com/aim/rules ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/05/28/20030528BIT00120/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/05/28/20030528BIT00120/wkr0002.pdf