Deutsche Brse AG, the leading European exchange and technology organization announced a joint venture with Computershare Ltd. Deutsche Brse and Computershare, the world’s largest and only global transfer agency and a leading technology provider for the global securities industry, will form a joint venture to offer transfer agency and related services in the German market and at a later stage in continental Europe. Among the services the new company will provide are annual meeting management, Internet-based proxy voting and full service share registry management.
The joint venture, to be called Deutsche Brse Computershare GmbH, will be located in Frankfurt and will take over Deutsche Brse’s “IAB” transfer agency bureau, which serves about six million accounts in Germany, or about 60 percent of the market. The joint venture will also use Computershare’s proprietary SCRIP* global recordkeeping system to offer issuers additional products and services. Amongst companies using the IAB bureau are DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Post, Lufthansa, Infineon and Siemens. Deutsche Brse Computershare will be 51 percent owned by Deutsche Brse and 49 percent by Computershare. The joint venture is expected to be operational in the second quarter of 2002. “Deutsche Brse, with its leading position in the European and German market and its clarity of vision, is the ideal partner with whom to enter this exciting and growing market,” said Chris Morris, president and chief executive officer, Computershare. “Together, we will revolutionise service quality and product innovation, creating a transfer agency offering to the German market that will be significantly more efficient and user-friendly for issuers and investors.”
In the medium term, Deutsche Brse Computershare will cooperate with Computershare’s businesses around the world to offer employee share plan administration services. Deutsche Brse Computershare will also give German issuers access to global share services, global registry management, investor analysis and other products from Computershare’s global product and service range.