(Kitco News) Siemens (SIE), Germany’s third-largest publicly traded company by market cap, announced that it has become one of the nation’s first companies to issue a digital bond, which has been issued in accordance with Germany’s Electronic Securities Act (ESA).
According to the press release issued by Siemens, the 60 million-euro ($64 million) bond was issued on the Polygon blockchain, with a one-year maturity. The company did not provide the interest rate. Participants in the bond sale included DekaBank, DZ Bank, and Union Investment.
The ESA enabled the issuance of blockchain-based digital bonds in Germany after it went into effect in June 2021. Thanks to the rules outlined in the ESA, Siemens was able to sell the securities directly to investors without needing to engage with established central securities depositories.
“Issuing the bond on a blockchain offers a number of benefits compared to previous processes,” Siemens said. “For instance, it makes paper-based global certificates and central clearing unnecessary. What’s more, the bond can be sold directly to investors without needing a bank to function as an intermediary.”
Payments for the digital bond were made using classic methods and the transaction was able to be completed within two days. Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe Privatbank AG acted as the bond registrar for the transaction.
“By moving away from paper and toward public blockchains for issuing securities, we can execute transactions significantly faster and more efficiently than when issuing bonds in the past,” said Peter Rathgeb, corporate treasurer at Siemens AG. “Thanks to our successful cooperation with our project partners, we have reached an important milestone in the development of digital securities in Germany. We are going to actively drive their ongoing development.”
This is not Siemens’ first entry into the world of blockchain. In December 2021, the engineering and manufacturing giant partnered with JPMorgan Chase to develop a blockchain-based system for payments that could be used to automatically transfer money between the Munich-based company’s own accounts.
“We are proud to be one of the first German companies to have successfully issued a blockchain-based bond,” said Ralf P. Thomas, Chief Financial Officer of Siemens AG. “This makes Siemens a pioneer in the ongoing development of digital solutions for the capital and securities markets.”
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| CME Group launches Euro-denominated Bitcoin and Ether futures |
CME Group to launch Bitcoin futures event contracts
CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, announced on Tuesday that it will be expanding its suite of event contracts to include Bitcoin futures beginning on March 13, pending regulatory approval.
Event contracts are daily options on futures that are valued up to $20 per contract and enable participants to know their maximum profit or loss when entering a trade, CME Group said.
The derivatives provider currently offers event contracts on a wide range of its benchmark futures markets, including gold, silver, copper, crude oil, natural gas, E-mini S&P 500, E-mini Nasdaq-100, E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average, E-mini Russell 2000 and euro-U.S. dollar foreign exchange futures.
“Our new event contracts on Bitcoin futures provide a highly transparent and less complex way for investors to access cryptocurrency markets – with the added benefit of a fully regulated platform,” said Tim McCourt, Global Head of Equity and FX Products at CME Group. “These contracts, which track the daily price moves of our deeply liquid benchmark Bitcoin futures, offer an innovative, lower-cost way for investors to trade their views on the up or down price moves of bitcoin.”
