SIX SWISS EXCHANGE LAUNCHES TRANSACTION PUBLICATION PLATFORM

Posted December 15, 2008

ZURICH – SIX Swiss Exchange has successfully launched a newly developed electronic publication platform that allows issuers not only to publish management transactions, but also disclosure notifications of major shareholders.

The web-based electronic publication platform provides issuers with a new tool, enabling them to meet their publication duties easily and cost-effectively. In turn, the public benefits from timely publications on the SIX Swiss Exchange website. Since the launch of the new platform on November 12, 45 issuers have already published 85 disclosure notifications.

The new platform ends laborious publication of disclosure notifications in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SOGC) and electronic media. Starting January 1, 2009, it will be mandatory to publish disclosure notifications via the SIX Swiss Exchange website. The notifications will be available for view the next day after electronic entry on the publication platform and not – as was previously the case – only following publication in the SOGC. Till year-end 2008, issuers can choose whether to publish the notifications in the SOGC or the new electronic platform. The publication platform was made possible after the Swiss Federal Banking Commission revised the Stock Exchange Ordinance to create the necessary legal foundations.