Final NZAX Listing Rule amendment gets the go-ahead

02 March 2007 – New Zealand Exchange Limited ( NZX) advises that it has received advice from the Minister of Commerce, Lianne Dalziel that she has not disallowed any of the c hanges to the NZAX Market Listing Rules.

These changes followed NZX's review of the NZAX Market in August 2006. Feedback from the review favoured aligning the NZAX Listing Rules more closely with the structure and format of the NZSX Listing Rules, while retaining distinctive and relevant Listing Rules for the NZAX Market.

NZX established the NZAX Market in 2003 with the objective of making it easier and cheaper for small-to medium-sized companies to raise capital through the public markets.

Changes to tick size and trading hours for the NZAX Market were implemented on the 2 October last year, but a rules amendment process was required for the anonymous call auction to be removed. Changes that allow the removal of the anonymous call auction are now in effect. The anonymous call auction will be removed on 19 March 2007 .

NZX has seen the benefit of these changes for companies listed on the NZAX Market. Two thirds of NZAX companies trading numbers, trading values and trading volumes increased in the comparative period in October and February 2005 and 2006. A number of those companies' trading figures have increased by more than 50% since the alignment of tick size and trading hours.

NZX Head of Products Geoff Brown said, “We're delighted to see that by making small adjustments to the NZAX in response to customer feedback, we've been able to improve these companies' ability to trade. As a consequence, more investors are using the NZAX platform. We hope to see more companies accessing capital and funding growth efficiently and cost effectively via the NZAX.”

The NZAX provides an even stronger and transparent vehicle for growth, allowing investors to have confidence in their investment options, while allowing growing companies to access capital easily in a best practice compliance environment.

To date, three NZAX Listed Issuers have graduated to the NZSX platform. In addition, 16 companies have used the NZAX to raise secondary capital cheaply and effectively, raising over $107 million.

		NZAX statitstics as of 1/03/2007
NZAX MARKET	Inception	14-Nov-03
	Companies listed at inception	11
	Companies listed at end of 2006	29
	Securities quoted	34
	Companies delisted	0
	Companies using platform to move to NZSX	Smiths City Ltd (SCY) – July 2004
		Seeka Kiwifruit Industries Ltd (SEK) – July 2005
		Comvita Limited (CVT) – October 2006
	Market capitalisation	$528 million
NZAX TRADING	Trades since inception	22,910
	Value traded since inception	$168,770,120
NZAX CAPITAL RAISING	Number of IPOs	8 Raising $51.3 million
	Secondary capital raisings since inception	$107 million
	Total capital raised since inception	$154.3 million

A full description of the NZAX Listing Rule changes can be found in the following document: http://www.nzx.com/regulation/listed_issuer/nov06/ax_lr_nov06_expdraft.pdf

To find out more about NZAX Listing, please contact the Listings Team at listings@nzx.com or 04 496 2855.

For more information, please contact:

Lucy McFadden
Communications
New Zealand Exchange Limited
04-496-2890