Barco regrets the unilateral decision of Euronext to change the criteria for inclusion in the BEL 20 index
Kortrijk, 21 December 2004. Yesterday Barco has been informed of the decision of Euronext to change the criteria for inclusion in its leading BEL 20 index. As a result of this decision, to be implemented as of 1 March 2005, the number of companies in the BEL 20 would be reduced. Five companies, including Barco, would no longer be part of this index.
This decision was taken by Euronext without any prior consultation of the five companies concerned. The decision does not reflect any negative changes in Barco’s shareholdership nor in the way Barco conducts its Investor Relations.
As a member of the BEL 20 and NEXT 150 indexes Barco has managed to largely increase its non-Belgian shareholdership and its liquidity. Today 35 % of all shares owned by institutional investors is in the hands of UK and US based institutional investors and 28 % is owned by other non-Belgian institutional investors. The average daily volume of shares traded at Brussels Euronext has grown from 13,410 at the end of 2002 to 29,442 on 20 December 2004. Over the same period the free float of Barco has grown to 90,54 % of shares and the free float velocity has increased to 66,49 %.
In recent years Barco has gone to great lengths to increase its transparency towards its shareholders and the investor community worldwide and to increase the liquidity of its share. This has resulted in the positive evolution mentioned above.
Barco will continue on this path.
About Barco
Barco, an international company headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium, provides visualization and display solutions for professional markets. Barco designs and develops solutions for large screen visualization, display solutions for life-critical applications, and systems for visual inspection. Barco is active worldwide and has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, Research and Development and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Barco is quoted on Euronext Brussels and is a BEL 20 and a Next 150 company.
For more information, please contact
JP
Tanghe
Senior Advisor to the CEO
Barco nv
Telephone
+32 56/26 23 22
jp.tanghe@barco.com
