Patriarch of the options exchange passed away
Jos Dreesens, the patriarch of the Amsterdam options exchange, passed away today. It is said that without the continued promotion of Tjerk Westerterp, the Amsterdam options exchange would never have become the overwhelming success it was, but without Jos Dreesens, the exchange would not have even existed. In fact, it was he who came up with the idea for founding the Options Exchange in the early 1970s. Boy Korthals Altes, the chairman of the Amsterdam stock exchange, to whom he presented the idea with his boss, was initially suspicious of the plan. The stock market was in a slump at the time, which is why he saw no point in following the Chicago example of setting up a separate options exchange in Amsterdam.
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Time for Exchange drumming
After 400 years, the exchange still continues its special tradition of Exchange drumming. After the previous edition at the end of 2022, Amsterdam schoolchildren accompanied by a Caribbean drum band once again disturbed the peace of the exchange building with their loud drumming.
Exit of Brill and the emptying of Beursplein 5
Brill, the scientific publisher from Leiden, has been taken over by German industry peer, De Gruyter. This has put an end to the listing for this small exchange fund that has been linked to the Amsterdam Exchange since 1896. Brill’s exchange exit is not an isolated event. Eight smaller funds left the exchange or announced their departure throughout 2023 alone. In addition to Brill, drinks company Bols, sleep expert Beter Bed, ski group Snow World and the call centre company Majorel have all been affected. The departures often follow an acquisition by a strategic partner or private equity party.
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Tjerk Westerterp passed away
At the age of 92, Tjerk Westerterp, the first director (1978-1992) and outstanding pioneer of the Amsterdam Options Exchange founded in 1978, passed away today. The Amsterdam Exchange owes a lot to this former politician who, after a 15-year career in The Hague, was responsible for something completely new: the marketing of options. While working as Minister of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, he was able to introduce mandatory helmet use and mandatory seat belts against stiff opposition; however, the introduction of options required more time. No one in the Netherlands knew anything about options, and it took five years before the general public gradually embraced the new product and thus the new exchange.
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Exchange listing for QEV Technologies
After a merger with SPEAR Investments I, a SPAC that came to the Amsterdam Exchange in November 2021, Spanish QEV Technologies was listed on Beursplein 5 today. The Barcelona technology company, which had previously participated in a Euronext pre-IPO programme, is a manufacturer of electric vans and sports cars. For the time being, the number of vehicles being produced has been limited to approximately 250, but the plan is to be able to deliver more than 15,000 by 2027.
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80 years of Het Financieele Dagblad
Het Financieele Dagblad (FD) celebrated its 80th birthday today. The leading exchange sector magazine does not want to dwell on it. This may have to do with the special year of birth: 1943. During this war year, the newspaper emerged from a merger forced by the occupying forces of its two predecessors: the Amsterdamsch Effectenblad dating from 1843 and the Dagelijksche Beurscourant annex De Nederlandsche Financier dating from 1864. The merger was related to a general concentration of daily and weekly newspapers in those years.
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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.
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‘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.
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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.
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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 100th anniversary of this historic event is a good moment to put Henriëtte Deterding in the spotlight.
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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.
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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.
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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‘.
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