Board decisions

17.03.2000 TLN

Tallinn Stock Exchange Press Release
March 17, 2000

The Supervisory Board of the Tallinn Stock Exchange (TSE) held its meeting on March 16, 2000.

1. Supervisory Board resolved to enforce the chapter "Take-over Rules" of TSE Rules and Regulations, to be effective 10 days after publishing in official publication "Official Announcements".
   Take-over rules have also been adopted to the Estonian Securities Market Act and they are effective since February 25, 2000. Based on the principles set out in the Act, the Exchange is required to establish a detailed regulatory framework over mandatory and voluntary takeover bids.
   Due to the enforcement of take-over rules, the Supervisory Board also made changes to the amounts of penalties charged by TSE, which are effective as of April 16, 2000. The offeror can be fined for violation of obligations stipulated in the rules in the amount between EEK 500,000 and EEK 5 million; fine for target company was set between EEK 100,000 and EEK 5 million.
2. Supervisory Board approved the new price list of TSE, effective as of April 1, 2000.
   Majority of the fees charged by the TSE will remain unchanged. The amended price list lowers the listing fees for fixed income securities, aiming to support the development of fixed income securities market in Estonia. With the new price list, the TSE also seeks to promote public program issues of securities, bond issues by currently listed share issuers, stock exchange members and investment-grade issuers, and issues of treasury and municipal bonds.
3. Supervisory Board resolved to make amendments to chapters “Listing Rules” and "Listing Particulars for Admission of Bonds" of TSE Rules and Regulations, in a bid to boost the development of public fixed income securities market in Estonia.

The amendments define program issue of securities and stipulate rules for listing of individual issues of securities conducted under a program, in accordance with the recent amendments to the Securities Market Act.

In order to take into account specific risks of different issuers of fixed income securities, changes were made to the TSE rules to differentiate issue prospectus requirements based on the type of issuer, whereby simplifying the access for low-risk issuers in the context of Estonian securities market.

The amendments also abolish several bond listing requirements, including provisions regarding bond issuer’s operating history and profitability. For the benefit of retail investors, the board decided that the face value of a listed bond may not exceed EEK 1,000. Minimum issue volume was reduced from EEK 10 million to EEK 3.1 million (EUR 200,000), in line with relevant European Union directives.

Changes are effective as of April 16, 2000.

All aforementioned amendments can be found at TSE homepage.

Additional information:

Eva Palu
Head of Investor Relations Dpt
Tallinn Stock Exchange
Tel: +372 64 08 840
e-mail: