BinckBank aims for breakthrough in Dutch tracker market
60% stake in Dutch tracker house ThinkCapital marks important first step
BinckBank and ThinkCapital yesterday evening signed an agreement whereby BinckBank will acquire a 60% stake in ThinkCapital. This will enable BinckBank to participate in the rapidly growing interest in indextrackers.
ThinkCapital and BinckBank are joining forces in order to create a definite breakthrough for trackers in the Dutch market. A tracker is a type of passively managed mutual fund that tracks the performance of a certain market index. This ensures low management fees. BinckBank will contribute its distribution network and ThinkCapital will be responsible for product development. ThinkCapital also targets the institutional market for passive asset management through its index investment offering.
Nick Bortot, member of the board of BinckBank
'Trackers suit Binck. They are transparent and understandable for investors and have a distinctive low costs structure. We see sharply increasing interest in trackers worldwide. This transparent investment product has, however, so far only barely gotten off the ground in the Netherlands due to the reserved attitude of the large banks. Binck is seeking to bring about a change to this situation and aims for the definitive breakthrough of the tracker.'
Martijn Rozemuller, Managing Director of ThinkCapital
'Through Binck we have direct access to private investors in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Binck's strong position also opens doors for us to enter into dialogue with institutional investors. This provides ample opportunities for both parties.'
The remaining share capital will be held by Flow Traders and the management of ThinkCapital. The new owners will furnish ThinkCapital with direct access to the market for private investors and through Flow Traders it will be assured of a large liquidity provider. This will guarantee sufficient supply and demand in the ThinkCapital trackers and as a result investors will be able to get in and out easily at all times.
ThinkCapital's current tracker range consists of five trackers that are tailored to the Dutch market. In addition, ThinkCapital is going to develop new products for the other markets in which BinckBank is active. ThinkCapital will continue to operate independently.
More information about ThinkCapital is available at www.thinkcapital.nl
About BinckBank N.V.
BinckBank is an online bank for investors, ranked in the top five in Europe. As an online broker, it offers its clients fast, low-cost access to all the important financial markets around the world. As an online bank for investors, BinckBank helps its clients look after their capital with BinckBank's online asset management services and online savings. BinckBank offers its professional clients fast, low-cost order execution and administrative processing of securities and cash transactions, in the form of insourcing (client BPO) or licensing of the appropriate software.
BinckBank is an independent online bank for investors, which is listed on Euronext Amsterdam. We have offices in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Spain. BinckBank has 555 FTEs at end of H1 2010. Our operations are split into two business units: Retail and Professional Services. BinckBank was formed in 2000 and has now more 400,000 account holders.
Public Relations:
Harmen van der Schoor
t: +31 (0)20 522 03 78
e: hvdschoor@binck.nl
Investor Relations:
Anneke Hoijtink
t: +31 (0)20 522 03 72
e: ahoijtink@binck.nl
BinckBank N.V.
Barbara Strozzilaan 310
1083 HN Amsterdam
www.binck.com
