Become a Member
  • Track your favourite stocks
  • Create & monitor portfolios
  • Daily portfolio value
Sign Up
Quickpicks
Add shares to your
quickpicks to
display them here!

ETFS and AIG

16th Sep 2008 08:41

RNS Number : 5099D
Lyxor Gold Bullion Securities Ltd
16 September 2008
 



NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN, INTO OR FROM THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AUSTRALIA OR JAPAN OR TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC IN THE UNITED KINGDOM OR JERSEY. THIS PRESS RELEASE IS NOT A PROSPECTUS BUT AN ADVERTISEMENT AND INVESTORS SHOULD NOT SUBSCRIBE FOR ANY TRANSFERABLE SECURITIES REFERRED TO IN THIS PRESS RELEASE EXCEPT ON THE BASIS OF INFORMATION IN THE PROSPECTUS.

Press Release   Tuesday 16 September 2008

Commodity Securities and AIG

ETF Securities Limited ("ETFS") wishes to clarify a number of matters with respect to various of its listed securities and in particular with respect to Commodity Securities, which are backed by matching contracts from AIG Financial Products Corp. and guaranteed by American International Group, Inc (collectively "AIG").

 

1. The ETFS group owns/manages four special purpose entities which issue securities, traded on the London Stock Exchange and various other exchanges throughout Europe, known as Exchange Traded Commodities (“ETCs”):

Issuer

Credit

ETCs

Commodity Securities Ltd

AIG

Classic Commodity Securities

Forward Commodity Securities

Short Commodity Securities

Leveraged Commodity Securities

Metal Securities Ltd

Physical precious metals

Metal Securities

Gold Bullion Securities Ltd

Physical gold

Gold Bullion Securities

Oil Securities Ltd

Shell

Energy Securities

2. All of the securities are structured as stand-alone credits, so that if there is a credit issue with any ETC or issuer there is no recourse to the assets of any other ETC or issuer. For example, if there are credit issues with Commodity Securities then none of the other Issuers, or ETCs issued by them, are affected
 
3. Market participants will be aware that the credit ratings of AIG have recently been downgraded and that AIG remains on watch for possible further downgrade. The ETFS group is not privy to any information on AIG other than that which is in the public domain.
 
4. AIG has continued to honour all of its obligations under our agreements with them, including processing all creations and redemptions in the usual manner and paying all redemptions due on time.
 
5. The agreements with AIG allow the Issuer to call for collateral, or redeem all the contracts with AIG, but only once the credit rating of AIG falls below BBB+ from Standard & Poor’s and Baa1 from Moody’s. The Issuer may also redeem all of the contracts with AIG but only if the Issuer compulsorily redeems all of the Commodity Securities on issue. In either case 30 days’ notice is required.
 
6. A number of firms who were making markets in the Commodity Securities stopped doing so yesterday afternoon. The ETFS group is actively working on possible ways of providing investors with liquidity, including:
a) Arranging suitable collateral for market-makers; and
b) Permitting holders to lodge redemption notices directly with the issuer (currently only Authorised Participants are permitted to do this).
However, we can give no assurance as to whether these or other alternatives can be implemented at this stage.
 
7. Active markets continue to be maintained in all our other ETCs and none of the various market makers have advised us otherwise.

For further information, please contact: 

Graham Tuckwell, Chairman, ETF Securities Ltd

Tel: +44 7910 112 756

Hector McNeil, Head of Sales, ETF Securities Ltd

Tel: +44 20 7448 4348 (direct) or 4330 (switch)

Roman TownsendPenrose Financial  Tel: +44 20 7786 4875

To learn more about ETF Securities go to: www.etfsecurities.com This press release does not constitute or form part of any offer or invitation to sell or issue, or any solicitation of any offer to purchase or subscribe for, any transferable securities to be issued by the ETF Securities Limited group ("ETFS"), nor shall it or any part of it nor the fact of its distribution form part of or be relied on in connection with any contract or investment decision relating thereto. Any offer, invitation or solicitation shall be made solely by means of a prospectus and recipients of this release who are considering a purchase of securities are reminded that any such purchase should be made solely on the basis of the information contained in such prospectus and any supplementary prospectus(es). This release does not constitute any recommendation regarding the securities of ETFS The communication of this press release is not being made by, and this press release has not been approved by, an authorised person for the purposes of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (the "FSMA"). Accordingly this press release is not being distributed to, and must not be passed on to, the general public in the United Kingdom. The communication of this press release or any other document issued in connection with the offer and sale of any ETCs is only being made to and directed at those persons in the United Kingdom falling within the definition of Investment Professionals (as defined in Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order"), or high net worth entities, and other persons to whom it may otherwise lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(1) of the Order or any person to whom it may otherwise lawfully be made (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). The communication of this press release (or any other document issued in connection with the offer and sale of the ETCs) must not be acted upon or relied upon by persons who are not relevant persons. Persons distributing this press release must satisfy themselves that it is lawful to do so. All applicable provisions of the FSMA must be complied with in respect of anything done in relation to the ETCs in, from or otherwise involving the United Kingdom.  This is not an offer of securities for sale in the United States. Securities issued by the ETFS group ("Securities") have not been and will not be registered under the US Securities Act or any other applicable law of the United States. These Securities are being offered and sold only outside the United States to non-US persons in reliance on the exemption from registration provided by Regulation S of the US Securities Act. The Issuer has not been and does not intend to become registered as an investment company under the Investment Company Act and related rules. These Securities and any beneficial interest therein may not be reoffered, resold, pledged or otherwise transferred in the United States or to US persons. If the Issuer determines that any Security Holder is a Prohibited US Person (being a US Person who is not a "qualified purchaser" as defined in the Investment Company Act), the Issuer may redeem the Securities held by that Security Holder in accordance with the provisions described in the Prospectus. The Securities may not be purchased with plan assets of any "employee benefit plan" within the meaning of section 3(3) of the United States Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended ("ERISA"), any "plan" described in section 4975(e)(1) of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the "Code") or any entity whose underlying assets include "plan assets" of any of the foregoing by reason of an employee benefit plan's or other plan's investment in such entity, which employee benefit plan, plan or entity is subject to Title I of ERISA or section 4975 of the Code or any United States Federal, state, or local law or non-United States law that is substantially similar to the prohibited transaction provisions of section 406 of ERISA or section 4975 of the Code (any such employee benefit plan, plan or entity, a "Prohibited Benefit Plan Investor"). If the Issuer determines that any Security Holder is a Prohibited Benefit Plan Investor, the Issuer may redeem the Securities held by that Security Holder in accordance with the provisions described in the Prospectus relating to those Securities."  "Dow Jones," "AIG®" "Dow Jones-AIG Commodity IndexSM," "DJ-AIGCISM", "Dow Jones-AIG Commodity 3-Month Forward Index" are service marks of Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and American International Group, Inc. ("American International Group"), as the case may be, and will be licensed for use for certain purposes by ETF Securities Ltd. ETCs based on the DJ-AIGCISM or related subindices (including single commodity sub-indices) or 3-Month Forward Indexes are not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by Dow Jones, AIG Financial Products Corp. ("AIG-FP"), American International Group, or any of their respective subsidiaries or affiliates, and none of Dow Jones, AIGFP, American International Group, or any of their respective subsidiaries or affiliates, makes any representation regarding the advisability of investing in such product(s).

This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
 
END
 
 
MSCLFMRTMMJBMAP

Related Shares:

Gold Bul
FTSE 100 Latest
Value8,632.33
Change89.77