Nasdaq Deutschland, a joint venture between the US stockmarket operator and Commerzbank, comdirect bank, Dresdner and the Berliner Bourse, has elected its supervisory board and set 21 March as the launch date for the new venture.
Jim Weber, CEO of Nasdaq Europe has been named as chairman of the management board and Axel Schubert, chairman of the Bremen Stock Exchange, has been appointed as vice-chairman. Nasdaq has a controlling 50% stake in the venture which was initially set up to compete with the now defunct Neuer Markt, Deutsche Borse's failed market for growth stocks.
Despite the inauspicious timing of its launch, the company says it is "encouraged by the positive response to its business and market models by the German securities industry".
In addition to its shareholders, the company is currently conducting connectivity tests with 30 other banks throughout Germany and Austria. These include most of the major order flow providers and all the settlement banks. All institutions are registered traders on the Berlin and Bremen Stock Exchanges.
Initially, stocks from the DAX, MDAX, TecDAX, Nasdaq 100 and Dow Jones 30 will be traded using a hybrid model comprising marketmakers and direct execution over a modified version of Nasdaq's SuperMontage trading platform.