 17 – 23 January 2001 |
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Excelstocks goes into voluntary liquidation expects further venture funding by month's end
Pressure on the buckling international technology sector has not failed to hit Malta, with the news that Excelstocks has gone into voluntary liquidation after running out of funding. Malta-based Excelstocks, a French company specialising in Internet-based investment advice, has gone into voluntary liquidation. The company, which was the focus of a good deal of media attention during its launch last May, was Maltacom subsidiary, Terranet's, first overseas client. Excelstocks' partners - Terranet Limited, Bank of Valletta, Banque de France and Matra Grolier – however, have pledged to continue backing the project until further funding makes itself available. However, according to the company's managing director, Michel Rostaing, the future is not quite so bleak. He explains that the development is but a temporary setback and he hopes to conclude a deal with one of the company's joint venture capitalists, with whom the company is in an advanced stage of negotiations. Mr Rostaing expects to obtain the required capital injection necessary to float the company once again and carry on with business by the end of the month. Excelstocks was expected to create some 50 specialised jobs in trading, back office work - including traders on world-wide equity markets - computer programmers, complaints officers and computer programmers in Malta, while the company was also expected to seek a secondary listing on the Malta Stock Exchange. Excelstocks offers online and real-time access to the main Western Stock markets, including the US, as well as added-value investment research in French and English including the publishing of up-market fundamental research. Excelstocks had an agreement with Standard and Poor's to supply on-line stock market prices and Standard and Poor's research on US stocks and was expected to also be publishing around 7,000 stock market reports and unique in-house research on European stocks. The research was, according to Mr Rostaing, to be offered world-wide while funds would be collected through an account opened through Bank of Valletta and organised by Terranet on its software developed and established on the company's servers. Excelstocks held the long-term plan of having all its trading facilities based in Malta while creating a back office centre to help the banks. |
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