020321bilancio

The Board of Directors of Borsa Italiana SpA/Italian Exchange met today to examine and approve the provisional balance sheet for the year 2001, which closed with a net profit of 34 million euro on a turnover of 140.4 million euro.

The Board also examined and approved the provisional consolidated balance sheet for the year 2001 which closed with a net profit of 39.3 million euro on a turnover of 152.4 million euro.

In the international financial scenario of 2001, the posted results, in line with the previous year, are considered to be very satisfactory.

The provisional balance sheet will be submitted to the General Assembly of Shareholders convened for 29th April (1st call) and 30th April (2nd call) 2002.

With a market capitalization of 592.3 billion euro as of 28th December 2001 Borsa Italiana Spa/Italian Exchange was the fourth largest European stock market and the eighth worldwide.

In 2001 the policy of diversification of revenues has continued. Borsa Italiana SpA/Italian Exchange total revenues of 140.4 million euro were composed of 52% of transaction fees (63% in 2000), 23% from listing fees (22% in 2000) and 25% from other activities' income (15% in 2000).

The clients' costs generating these results are among the lowest in the whole international exchange industry.

In a year characterised by low trading volumes on equity markets, a total of approximately 44 million trades was recorded on Borsa, Nuovo Mercato and Ristretto (-24.5% vs 2000). The average trade cost including RRG (pre-settlement operations) was 0.38 euro (0.33 in 2000) and is among the most competitive within international capital markets. This increase of the average trade cost was not an effect of an increase of trading fees (stable from 1998) but was due to the trading fee structure which is highly regressive when volumes rise (discounts apply to higher volumes).

The average cost per standard contract on IDEM, the Italian derivatives market, decreased from 0.42 euro in 2000 to 0.37 euro in 2001 (-11.9%).

As to the listing fees paid by issuers, average costs have been maintained at extremely low levels: 29.4 euro per million euro of market capitalisation compared to 25.6 euro in 2000. Listing fees remain unchanged; this figure reflects the lower market capitalisation on which the average listing cost is calculated. If revenues deriving from IPOs in 2001 were narrow, revenues from listing of other financial instruments such as covered warrants (up 88.8% vs 2000) were higher.

The turnover of IDEM, the Italian derivatives market reached a new record for the number of standard contracts (17.1 million) reporting a high growth of miniFIB (up 97% vs 2000) and of stock options (+43%) while the total number of contracts of combined equity and covered warrant markets was 52.6 million (-25% vs 2000).

Milan, March 21st 2002

BORSA ITALIANA GROUP (*) : Borsa Italiana SpA, Cassa di Compensazione e Garanzia, BIt Systems, Piazza Affari Gestione e Servizi