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Nasdaq board committee to examine IPO

The US Nasdaq stock market has set up a board committee to examine plans for an initial public offering and expects a decision later this year, Nasdaq vice chairman Alfred R Berkeley said on Friday.

"We have appointed a committee of the board to examine the issue and I expect they would be back with a report later this year, maybe as early as fall," Berkeley, in Bombay to attend the Nasscom 2001 conference, said.

Speculation that Nasdaq will follow the lead set by two leading European exchanges and list its shares has mounted in recent weeks. Nasdaq is the second-largest US stock market after the New York Stock Exchange.

Deutsche Boerse, the German stock exchange operator, listed its shares last Monday through an issue that raised almost one billion euros, while Euronext, the merged entity combining the Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris bourses, plans an initial public offering of shares in May.

While Berkeley's remarks suggest that Nasdaq is not ruling out a similar IPO, he had previously warned Nasdaq needs to make heavy investments which may not go down well with public shareholders.

"These very heavy investments are hardly compatible with demands from shareholders for short-term funds," he said in Paris last week.

On the issue of alliances in Europe, Berkeley said Nasdaq is still looking for a partner to create a European leg that would help rival the New York Stock Exchange's plans to create a 24-hour global trading alliance.

"We are looking for a win-win situation in Europe. We want a partner who understands our structure and who can help us develop the market," Berkeley said.

Nasdaq has been linked with London Stock Exchange (LSE), whose planned merger with Deutsche Boerse fell through last year, and Easdaq, the cash-strapped, pan-European European stock exchange based in Brussels.

Berkeley declined to comment on individual cases.

New markets in Asia

Nasdaq expects to generate more listings in coming years from Asian countries and its newly opened office in Bangalore will help achieve this, Berkeley said.

The obvious choices are India, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, but Nasdaq wants to broaden its horizon to embrace other countries too.

"We see good opportunities in Malaysia and Indonesia," he added.

Berkeley also said efforts are on to draw big-time American companies into listing on Nasdaq Japan, the exchange's Japanese sibling set up last year.

When asked if that included companies like the world's biggest software maker Microsoft Corp and the world's biggest computer networking company Cisco Systems Inc, Berkeley said "that's the class of companies Nasdaq has been talking to".

SEE ALSO:

Nasscom 2001: The complete coverage

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