IPO Global Interconnection Group

Through a merger with the SPAC Disruptive Capital Acquisition Company (DCAC), UK-based Global Interconnection Group (CIG) is making its debut on the Amsterdam Exchange today. CIG, which like DCAC hails from Guernsey, is a young company that makes its money from the development, construction and operation of connections, such as high-voltage cables. In doing so, DCAC is succeeding in its aim, within the stipulated deadline, to acquire a company, although contrary to the 2021 plan, it has not become a financial services provider. End 2022, a takeover of Saxo Bank, a broker that also operates in the Netherlands, fell through at the last minute.

Shoe brand goes to Nxchange

Shoe brand Van Lier, best known for men’s dress shoes, will be listed on the alternative exchange Nxchange from today. The listing will raise €5 million for the Breda-based family business, which dates back to 1815. It plans to use these funds to expand abroad and strengthen its online marketing activities. The aim is to reach younger customers and to highlight the new women’s collection. In order to preserve the family character of the company, the listing involves only the issue of non-voting shares.

Listing of Ferrovial

Spanish construction company Ferrovial will be listed on the Amsterdam Exchange from today. The introduction is taking place in relative silence. This may have been prompted by the fuss earlier in Spain surrounding its move to and listing in Amsterdam. Even the Spanish prime minister has expressed outrage about it. According to him and other cabinet members, it is a vulgar tax flight to the “tax haven” of the Netherlands, with Ferrovial achieving €40 million a year in tax savings. A reproach that was also made to Italy’s Exor in 2022.

‘SPACS: a failed experiment…?’

Het Financieele Dagblad, the newspaper for everyone who matters in the financial sector, called the SPAC craze a ‘failed experiment’ in an editorial today. She writes that it is admirable that the Amsterdam Stock Exchange is open to innovation. This fits well with the exchange’s tradition of pioneering and trying new things.

De-SPAC New Amsterdam Invest

Through an unusual route, the New Amsterdam Invest SPAC successfully managed to find a merger partner today after almost two years. It is merging with Sommerset Park, a property fund set up a few days earlier by the SPAC itself. This is possibly due to the difficult stock market climate at the time and the fact that the SPAC hype of 2021 has now run its course. After the merger the company taking over the listing will continue under the pre-existing SPAC name: New Amsterdam Invest.

100 years of women in the stock market

Today marks exactly 100 years since the first woman joined the Amsterdam Stock Exchange as a member: Henriëtte Wilhelmina Deterding (1899-1978). Globally, this move was seen as particularly early. It wasn’t until much later that women joined the New York (1967) and London (1973) stock exchanges. The 100^th anniversary of this historic event is a good moment to put Henriëtte Deterding in the spotlight.

Rare delistings

The Amsterdam Exchange took a rare step today. It announced the delisting of six exchange funds if they failed to ensure submission of audited financial statements by early November. The companies have been sitting on the exchange’s penalty bench. This has never happened since the introduction of the penalty bench measure in 1981. The companies in question are ladder manufacturer Alumexx, property investor Bever Holding, holding company Lavide, mapmaker Geojunxion, sustainable investor New Sources Energy and developer of CO₂ projects DGB.

These are all small exchange funds, with Lavide even being seen as the smallest exchange-listed fund in Amsterdam. Quite a few of them originally came to the stock exchange via the short route of a reverse listing. None of them have so far been able to find qualified auditors willing and able to audit their financial statements. The same applies to the investment companies Value8, SME Nedsense and digital publisher IEX-Group, three related exchange funds that have also been told that their delisting is imminent, but have been given a little longer to submit their financial statements.

40 years of AEX index

Tjerk Westerterp, the first director of the Amsterdam Options Exchange, was the spiritual father of the AEX-index in 1983. The story is that he conceived the outline of the index 40 years ago on the back of a cigar box during a train journey between Liège and Luxembourg. The aim was to trade index options on it and certainly not to develop a barometer of the Dutch economy. Even Westerterp was surprised that the index nevertheless achieved this status in the course of time.

Publication of book on the stock market

Today, Peter de Waard, journalist and Volkskrant columnist, is launching a book for the general reader on the Dutch exchange market and capital markets since 1975. This is the period when the playing field has changed dramatically due to developments such as internationalisation and digitisation of the exchange sector. The title is ‘The Secret of Beursplein 5‘.