Developments on The American Stock Exchange

The American Stock Exchange (Amex) has a long history in the US equity markets. Today, it is the only primary exchange that offers trading across a full range of equities, options and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including structured products and Holding Depository Receipts (HOLDRsSM). As a national exchange, all Amex-listed companies are blue sky exempt in all 50 states.

The Amex is committed to the Israeli market. In fact, its senior executives are frequently in Israel for capital market events, seminars and meetings. In 1959, the Amex listed its first Israeli company, American Israeli Paper Mills, which still trades on the Amex. In early 2006, Ivax Pharmaceuticals, a blue chip Amex company, merged with Teva Pharmaceutical, creating the largest generic drug company in the world, in a transaction valued at $7.4 billion. Ivax had listed on the Amex in 1987 with a $100 million market capitalization. The Amex was also the listing venue for the successful IPOs of Gurunet (now Answers Corporation) and Xfone, Inc.

The Amex is seeking to partner with Israeli companies and assist them with their growth initiatives by offering cost-effective and value-added access to the US markets. It has put in place a suite of services that can assist Israeli companies with their visibility in the US as well as help them increase their institutional shareholder base. In addition to its role as a national equities market, with approximately 600 listed companies, the Amex is the pioneer of the exchange traded fund, responsible for bringing the first domestic product to market in 1993 and launching a whole new investment category. Today, it has listed more than 180 ETFs.

The Amex is one of the largest options exchanges in the US, trading options in nearly 4,000 broad-based and sector indexes of domestic and foreign stocks. The Auction and Electronic Market Integration (AEMI) platform is Amex's new, state-of-the-art trading platform that will launch to coincide with the implementation of the Order Protection Rule as part of Regulation NMS. AEMI will support Amex's hybrid market structure, which offers market participants automated execution combined with the dedicated liquidity provision of an auction market for times of order imbalances, complex trades, or when natural liquidity cannot be found. The fusion of automated execution and the auction market is geared to meet the needs of Amex customers the investing public, institutional traders, liquidity providers and the Exchange's listed companies and ensures that the Exchange will be competitive in the post-Reg NMS environment.

The Amex is the only exchange to offer a suite of visibility-enhancing programs and investor relations services to its listed companies. The Amex IR AllianceSM (AIRA) provides a full communications audit, IR hotline, seminars and Amex Online an advanced targeting tool to locate new institutional shareholders and to conduct in-depth market and peer analysis. Each company is assigned an issuer services director who works closely with management to maximize the full value of these services. Together, these tools help enhance demand for a company's stock among both retail and institutional investors.

While its market structure and customized services benefit companies of every size and stage of development, the Amex specializes in providing an efficient market for small and mid-sized companies striving for enhanced visibility and institutional ownership. Companies select their own specialist, who has an obligation to make a fair and orderly market in their stocks.

Amex specialists and traders form one of the largest pools of capital available for customer execution in the world. While Amex stocks are predominantly small-cap or middle market, its listed companies represent many diverse industries, including banks and financial services, healthcare products and services, wholesale and retail trade, real estate and REITs, technology, communications, natural resources and industrial and consumer manufacturing. Numerous countries are also represented, including Canada, China, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.

American Stock Exchange
86 Trinity Place, New York, NY 10006
www.amex.com

Robert Wotczak, Managing Director
robert.wotczak@amex.com
Tel: +1-212-306-2263

Amira Bardichev, Amex’s consultant to Israel and Europe
amira@global-equity-ir.co.uk
Tel: +44-79-562-06270

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