Singapore Exchange and Bahrain Stock Exchange sign consultancy agreement

Friday, 24 October 2008

Singapore and Manama, Bahrain, 24 November 2008 -Singapore Exchange Limited
(SGX) and Bahrain Stock Exchange (BSE) are pleased to announce that they have signed a consultancy agreement today in Manama.

Under this consultancy agreement SGX, through its wholly owned subsidiary, SGX-International (SGX-I) will provide overall guidance on the management and operations of BSE through training and knowledge transfer. This is to enhance BSE s competitiveness in the region by increasing its operational efficiency.

Mr Seck Wai Kwong, Senior Executive Vice President/Chief Financial Officer of SGX and Chairman of SGX-I said, "SGX looks forward to sharing our best practices and knowledge with BSE to further enhance their product and service offerings to market participants."

Mr Fouad Rashid, Director of BSE said, As SGX is one of the most developed exchanges in Asia Pacific, we hope that SGX s extensive experience will enable us to increase our operational efficiency in a way that will support the Exchange s capabilities to play a greater role in the development of the country, especially those related to implementing Bahrain s economic vision that was recently released. We aim to attract more listings and encourage financial institutions to provide investors with more exchange-traded products on our platform.

The agreement was signed by Mr Seck and Mr Rashid in the presence of H.E.
Rasheed Al Maraj, Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain and Chairman of the BSE and Mr Heng Swee Keat, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

This consultancy agreement builds on the earlier Memorandum of Understanding signed between SGX and BSE on 14 October 2008 to explore areas of collaboration to benefit the financial services industries in Singapore and Bahrain.

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For more information, kindly contact:

SGX
Adeline Lee
Corporate Communications
Tel: (65) 6236 8262
Email: adelinelee@sgx.com
Bahrain Stock Exchange
Ali Al-Mansoor
Public Relations & Marketing
Tel: (973 17) 212759 / 265113
Email: ali.almansoor@bahrainstock.com

About Singapore Exchange Limited

Singapore Exchange (SGX) was inaugurated on 1 December 1999, following the merger of two established and well-respected financial institutions – the Stock Exchange of Singapore (SES) and the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX). SGX is Asia-Pacific’s first demutualised and integrated securities and derivatives exchange and is listed on its own bourse. The exchange’s stock is a component of benchmark indices such as the MSCI Singapore’s Free Index and the Straits Times Index (STI).

SGX aims to offer a highly trusted, comprehensive and efficient securities and derivatives marketplace for raising capital, risk transfer, trading, clearing and settlement. SGX facilitates the trading and clearing of commodity futures and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives such as forward freight agreements and oil swaps. Through strategic alliances and partnerships with other exchanges around the world, SGX is firmly positioned as an Asian Gateway.

SGX-I, a wholly owned subsidiary of SGX, is a global exchange consultancy which is focused on extending SGX s Asian Gateway strategy by building relationships, creating alliances and forming joint ventures with other exchanges and financial institutions. SGX-I leverages on the expertise and experience of SGX s existing talent pool, as well as, retired SGX and global exchange executives. The company deploys teams to manage client exchanges and/or engages in specific consulting assignments for exchanges and other related financial institutions.

For more information, please visit SGX website: www.sgx.com

About Bahrain Stock Exchange

The Bahrain Stock Exchange (BSE) was established as an independent entity in 1987 and officially commenced operations two years later in June 1989. Financial instruments listed include ordinary and preferred shares, bonds/Islamic Sukuk, and mutual funds. The BSE is regulated by The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB).

Trading at the BSE is conducted using an Automated Trading System (ATS). The trading session is from 9.30 a.m. to 12:30 noon, including a pre-opening period of 15 minutes starting from 9:15 a.m. Clearing and settlement of transactions is made within two working days (T+2).

There are 52 companies listed on the exchange, 42 mutual funds, and 14 bonds/Islamic Sukuk traded on the exchange. The BSE s market capitalization is approximately US$25 billion.

There are three indices tracking the market s performance namely: the Bahrain All Share Index, the Esterad Index (which consists of a basket of selected local-publicly listed companies), and the Dow Jones Bahrain Index.

The Kingdom of Bahrain allows foreigners to own up to 100% of shares of local listed companies. Bahrain also does not enforce any taxes on investment in securities nor on capital gains generated from trading on shares.

For more information, please visit BSE website: www.bahrainstock.com