OMX and the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchanges sign Letter of Intent regarding technology partnership

OMX, a leading expert in the exchange industry, and the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchanges (CASE), the Egyptian Exchange and Exchange Technology group, have today signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to establish a Joint Venture to offer IT services to the financial markets in Egypt as well as the Middle East and Africa. Final agreements are expected to be signed during Q1 2006.

The aim of the partnership is to establish a jointly owned company that will sell, develop and support IT solutions for the financial markets in these regions. This will include the systems currently being marketed by Egypt for Information Dissemination, EGID, a subsidiary of CASE. The joint venture will also strengthen OMX’s position in the regions by allowing local development and support to be effected closer to the customers located in these regions. It is expected that CASE will implement a new technology infrastructure supplied by OMX, with support from the new, jointly owned, company. The Joint Venture will strengthen OMX’s presence in the Middle East and Africa. Following the ongoing acquisition of Computershare’s Markets Technology business, OMX will have ten exchange customers in the regions. CASE, being a leading exchange in the region, aims to capitalize on its regional ties and role to support the Joint Venture in providing IT services to the financial markets in Egypt as well as the Middle East and Africa. “This new Joint Venture is built on the success of EGID and is considered a very important step towards achieving the vision of CASE to provide markets in the Middle East and Africa with the latest and most sophisticated technologies to sustain their growth and promote further cooperation among these markets.” says Maged Shawky Sourial, Chairman of CASE. “OMX sees the Joint Venture as an opportunity to complement OMX’s current world leading position with a regional presence from which we can offer our customers improved services. The Middle East and Africa are important to us and the Joint Venture is an excellent way of strengthening our presence in these regions” says Magnus Böcker, President and CEO of OMX. For more information, please contact: Maher Asham, Chief Executive Officer, EGID +202 396 1501 Markus Gerdien, President Market Technology, OMX +46 8 405 60 77 Niclas Lilja, VP Corporate Communications, OMX +46 8 405 63 95