The physically-backed bond Xetra-Gold, issued by Deutsche Börse Commodities, has been admitted for sale in Austria.
The physically-backed bond Xetra-Gold, issued by Deutsche Börse Commodities, has been admitted for sale in Austria.
Xetra-Gold was launched in Germany in December 2007, and has also been available in Luxembourg since last November.
The Xetra-Gold bond combines the advantages of physical gold and exchange traded securities. Each bond represents the option for delivery of one gram of gold and can be bought or sold via the Xetra trading platform.
The securities issued are tradable constantly and quickly, and private investors can receive the underlying gold in physical form from their bank if desired. The bond offers the advantages of physical gold along with the low costs of securities trading on Xetra.
Clearstream Banking Frankfurt, a Deutsche Börse subsidiary, stores the gold in its vault. The physical gold is supplied, monitored and processed by industry partner Umicore.
Deutsche Börse Commodities is a joint venture launched by Deutsche Börse and its partners Bankhaus Metzler, Bank Vontobel, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, DZ Bank and Umicore in November 2007, and seeks to offer innovative types of securitisation for commodities and to ensure cost-effective trading in an alliance with the partners.
Steffen Orben, managing director of Deutsche Börse Commodities, says: ‘With innovative securitizations, we offer investors direct access to the commodities market and a cost-effective opportunity to diversify their portfolios, which is particularly valuable in times of market turmoil.’
Of the 113 commodities traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Xetra-Gold is the most traded. Order book turnover on Xetra and on the Frankfurt trading floor also outperforms the other products; at EUR255.9m in February it accounted for at least 50 per cent of the total turnover of exchange listed commodities.
