International Securities Trading plc

On 22 February 2008, our client, International Securities Trading plc ("ISTC") announced that it had signed an Investment Agreement with the former Collins Stewart plc ("Collins Stewart") under which Collins Stewart will invest £5mlion into ISTC in return for 100% of ISTC's share capital.

Established in 2005, ISTC provides investment grade rated hybrid capital to regulated financial institutions in OECD and OECD related countries. In two years it grew its total assets to £3.1 billion 2007 building its balance sheet to mirror that of a bank. As a result of the recent credit crunch however, ISTC entered into difficulties in October 2007 when it was no longer able to meet margin calls and collateral substitution requests from its funding counterparties. In November 2007 it entered into examinership in Ireland (a form of court protection) to help facilitate a restructuring of the business.

Canaccord Genuity was engaged to negotiate with ISTC's funding counterparties and to identify new sources of capital. After extensive negotiations with a number of potential investors and considering various structures, Collins Stewart agreed to invest £5mlion into ISTC in return for 100% of its share capital. It is intended that ISTC will raise further capital from interested parties such as existing creditors and shareholders.

The investment by Collins Stewart will form part of the Scheme of Arrangement being put forward by the Examiner to ISTC's creditors and subsequent confirmation by the High Court in Ireland.

According to Chief Executive, Tiarnan O'Mahoney: "Under the circumstances we face, and given the extraordinarily difficult market environment, approval of the Scheme will represent the optimum outcome for ISTC, particularly for creditors, investors and staff.

Canaccord Genuity acted as sole financial advisor to International Securities Trading plc