OREANDA-NEWS. September 12, 2011. The merger of the MICEX and the RTS has been approved by the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation.

Welcoming the decision of the FAS, the MICEX President Ruben Aganbegyan said: "The merger has been approved by all parties: shareholders in the two exchanges and the FAS. The merger of Russia’s two major exchanges has entered its final stage. I believe in success, I believe in synergy between our companies, which are destined to become one. We will be a united, strong, customer-oriented trading floor that is able to meet the current challenges of the globalized world."

Roman Goryunov, CEO at OJSC RTS believes that the FAS’ approval opens the way for the final implementation of the merger. "This means that by the end of the year we will be a single company. In fact, we have already begun to work as a unified team. We have done a lot of work together, including the analysis and the joint assessment of markets, products and services. Before long, the results of our work will be submitted to market participants for consideration and discussion. Our plan is to build an exchange that will be sought-for and convenient for clients", said Roman Goryunov.

Background information:

The MICEX Group is an integrated exchange providing services related to electronic trading, clearing, settlements as well as depository and information services on the basis of a single technological platform.

The Group is comprised of the MICEX, the MICEX Stock Exchange, the National Mercantile Exchange, the National Settlement Depository, commercial bank National Clearing Centre, The MICEX – Information Technologies Company, regional exchange and settlement centers.  The Group serves over 1700 participants in the on-exchange market - leading Russian banks and broker companies from Moscow and other large financial and industrial centers of Russia. In July 2010, Ukrainian Stock Exchange PFTS joined the MICEX Group.

At present, the MICEX Group operates a number of key financial markets: the foreign exchange market, the federal bonds market, the share market, the market for corporate and regional bonds, the derivatives market and the commodity market.

RTS Group is an integrated trading and settlement complex providing the full range of qualitative and reliable exchange services. The Group consists of OJSC "Russian Trading System" Stock Exchange, RTS Clearing Center, RTS Settlement Chamber, CJSC "Depository Clearing Company", RTS Tender. The Group includes also subsidiaries such as the Ukrainian Exchange, Eurasian Trade System Commodity Exchange JSC in Kazakhstan and RTS Exchange Europe Ltd in London.

RTS provides a wide range of opportunities to both Russian and foreign investors, professional institutions and their clients for trading in shares, bonds, futures and options contracts on shares and bonds of Russian companies, RTS Index, RTS Standard Index, Federal loan bonds, oil, gasoil, gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper and sugar.

OJSC RTS is an organizer of trading on FORTS, the derivatives market of RTS, being among the TOP-10 global derivatives exchanges, and on RTS Standard equities market with settlement on T+4 and partial advance depositing of assets.