IAP.L Regulatory News (IAP)

16 May 2006 09:32

ICAP PLC16 May 2006 EBS shareholders elect to receive the maximum number of ICAP shares London, 16 May 2006. ICAP plc (IAP.L), the world's largest interdealer broker,announced on 21 April 2006 its agreement to acquire all of the share capital ofEBS Group Limited (EBS), the pre-eminent provider of foreign exchange tradingand market data solutions to the professional spot foreign exchange community.The agreement is conditional on regulatory approval. The consideration for 100% of the share capital of EBS was US$775 million,payable in cash. EBS shareholders were also offered: • A partial share alternative whereby EBS shareholders may elect to receive, in aggregate, up to 36.1 million new ICAP shares in lieu of up to one third of the cash consideration they would otherwise have been entitled to; and • A mix and match election under which EBS shareholders may receive more than one third of their cash consideration in new ICAP shares, to the extent that other EBS shareholders elect to receive less than one third of their cash consideration in new ICAP shares. The EBS shareholders have between them elected to receive all of the 36.1million new ICAP shares on offer and US $517 million in cash. Based on theclosing price of an ICAP share of 529 pence on 15 May 2006, the day before therelease of this announcement, the aggregate consideration would be US $876million. The new ICAP shares issued as part of the transaction will be subjectto lock-up arrangements for a period of six months. An application to list the new ICAP shares will be made on completion of theacquisition following receipt of regulatory approval. It is expected that thenew ICAP shares will be admitted to the Official List of the UK FinancialServices Authority and to trading on the London Stock Exchange. Contacts: Mike Sheard Director of Corporate Affairs (44) 20 7050 7103Neil Bennett The Maitland Consultancy (44) 20 7379 5151 About EBS Launched in September 1993 by a group of the world's largest foreign exchangemarket making banks, EBS is the pre-eminent provider of foreign exchange tradingand market data solutions to the professional spot foreign exchange community.Approximately US$130 billion in spot foreign exchange, 700,000 ozs gold and7,000,000 ozs silver transactions are conducted over the EBS Spot Dealing Systemin more than 40 countries each day. The EBS shareholders are subsidiaries of the following banks and institutions:ABN AMRO, Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse FirstBoston, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, The Royal Bank of Scotland,S-E-Banken, UBS AG and the Minex Corporation of Japan. More information about EBS is available at www.ebs.com About ICAP: ICAP is the world's largest interdealer broker and following the acquisition ofthe BrokerTec fixed income securities businesses is the world's leadingelectronic broker of fixed income securities with a daily average transactionvolume in excess of $1 trillion, 50% of which is electronic. The Group is activein the wholesale market for OTC derivatives, fixed income securities, moneymarket products, foreign exchange, energy, credit and equity derivatives. Formore information go to www.icap.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange