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Scale stock market segment turns two years old

Release date:
28 Feb 2019
| Deutsche Börse Cash Market

Scale stock market segment turns two years old

“Visibility and liquidity significantly increased” / Shares have developed positively on average

The Scale segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is celebrating its second birthday on 1 March. Deutsche Börse is pleased with the development: “We have succeeded in significantly increasing liquidity and visibility of the companies through new standards and services,” explains Renata Bandov, Head of Pre-IPO & Capital Markets at Deutsche Börse.

With Scale, Deutsche Börse addresses both growth companies and traditional SMEs. Currently 51 companies are listed in the stock segment; financial service providers are represented as well as industrial or software companies. “Cross-industry diversity is an important aspect for us to build a sustainable segment for SME and not just provide short-term incentives for IPOs,” says Bandov.

With the launch of Scale, Deutsche Börse developed new admission conditions and new services for issuers and investors. These include, for example, the DirectPlace subscription function, with which additional investor groups can be accessed before the IPO, or mandatory research reports for issuers commissioned by Deutsche Börse and available free of charge to investors. The reports ensure more transparency within the segment and enable investors to compare companies better with each other. Deutsche Börse also organises international investor meetings for issuers. Last year, 15 scale issuers were brought together with around 200 selected investors – in London, Monaco, Paris and Geneva.

On average, the shares listed in the segment have developed positively since March 2017: the Scale All Share index, which tracks the performance of all shares, rose by around ten percent. In February 2018, the Scale 30 selection index was launched, which tracks the performance of the 30 most liquid shares in the segment. Investors can participate in the performance of the index via an open-end certificate.

The liquidity of the issuers has almost doubled compared to the period before the start of Scale. The average market capitalisation of the companies amounts to €128 million, the total market capitalisation in the segment amounts to €6.5 billion.

So far, there have been six IPOs in Scale. With Corestate Capital, Grand City Properties and Ringmetall, three former Scale issuers are now listed in the Regulated Market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.