Press releases 2011

-Six leading Palestinian companies attending
-Market open ceremony conducted by Mr Ahmad Aweidah, CEO of the Palestine Exchange and attended by the Lord Mayor of the City of London

The London Stock Exchange today held the first Palestine Capital Markets day at its London Headquarters in Paternoster Square. The event is being held in conjunction with the Palestine Exchange (PEX) and features participation from six of Palestine’s leading businesses.

To mark the occasion, the London Stock Exchange markets were opened by Mr Ahmad Aweidah, CEO of the Palestine Exchange. The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Michael Bear also attended the ceremony.

Tracey Pierce, Director of Equity Primary Markets at London Stock Exchange Group, said:

"Today’s Capital Markets Day demonstrates the significant investment opportunities available in Palestine and how London, as the world's most international financial centre, can be an important conduit in providing growth finance for Palestinian companies and the broader economy.

This event helps create the opportunity for growing Palestinian companies to benefit from London’s wealth of expertise and gain access to complementary pools of capital to support Palestine’s own investment community."

Ahmad Aweidah, CEO of PEX, said:

"This Capital Markets Day dedicated to Palestine comes at a very opportunistic time when our exchange is enjoying both strong returns on investment and maintaining attractive valuations. Indeed so far this year the Palestinian Al-Quds Index remains the best performing among Arab exchanges and we therefore continue to represent untapped investment potential that we hope leading London based investment houses will seek to gain from."

Alderman Michael Bear, Lord Mayor of the City of London, added:

“It is a great honour to be here for the first Capital Markets Day ahead of my visit to Palestine. Our partnership presents considerable business opportunities and I look forward to following up on this during discussions in Palestine next month.”

Palestinian companies participating in the event are:

Palestine Telecommunications (Paltel)
Bank of Palestine (BoP)
Palestine Development & Investment (Padico)
Wataniya Mobile (Wataniya)
Rasmala Palestine Equity Fund/Rasmala Investment Bank
Palestine Exchange (PEX)

The Palestine Capital Markets Event is part of a series of events the London Stock Exchange runs to facilitate a dialogue between London-based and global investors with international companies. Recent events have included the following countries: Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

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For further information, please contact:

Lauren Crawley-Moore                                 Press Office +44 (0)20 7797 1222

                                                            newsroom@londonstockexchange.com

Notes to editors:

About London Stock Exchange Group:

London Stock Exchange Group (LSE.L) sits at the heart of the world’s financial community. The Group operates a broad range of international equity, bond and derivatives markets, including London Stock Exchange; Borsa Italiana; MTS, Europe's leading fixed income market; and Turquoise, offering pan-European and US lit and dark equity trading. Through its markets, the Group offers international business unrivalled access to Europe’s capital markets.

The Group is a leading developer of high performance trading platforms and capital markets software and also offers its customers around the world an extensive range of real-time and reference data products and market-leading post-trade services. 

Headquartered in London, United Kingdom with significant operations in Italy and Sri Lanka, the Group employs around 1500 people. Further information on London Stock Exchange Group can be found at www.londonstockexchangegroup.com