NEW YORK, Feb. 23 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Atticus Capital today sent the following letter to Kurt Viermetz, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Boerse:
February 22, 2007
Kurt Viermetz
Chairman - Supervisory Board
Deutsche Boerse
Neue Boersenstrasse 1
60587 Frankfurt Am Main
Germany
Dear Mr. Viermetz,
We are writing to clarify our position in Deutsche Boerse. Atticus Capital's clients currently are exposed to 11,915,456 shares, or 11.68% of Deutsche Boerse's outstanding shares (8,911,110 shares, call options on 1,000,000 shares and cash-settled swaps on 2,004,346 notional shares). We continue to be one of the largest shareholders in your company, which we believe is dramatically undervalued.
We commend Deutsche Boerse's management team on delivering excellent operational results over the last several years. The group's organic volume growth has been impressive, cost control excellent and new product initiatives promising.
However, we continue to believe that your capital return program is too conservative. The Clearstream constraint has been well understood for many years, and the "ring fence" analysis was started nearly 2 years ago. Irrespective of German tax laws, shareholders would benefit from an immediate separation of Clearstream, a subsequent re-gearing of the balance sheet and a Dutch auction for at least 20% your stock. As long-term holders we prefer that you buy back stock today, rather than at much higher levels in a year's time.
Sincerely,
Timothy R. Barakett David Slager
Chairman and CEO Vice-Chairman
About Atticus Capital LP
Atticus Capital, LP, is a leading asset management firm, with more than $14 billion of assets under management. Founded by Timothy Barakett in 1995, the firm is headquartered in New York with an office in London. Timothy Barakett, Chairman and CEO, and David Slager, Vice-Chairman, lead the firm's portfolio management team. Nathaniel Rothschild, Co-Chairman, and Matthew Edmonds, President, also sit on the firm's management committee.
