Indian cos wooed to list stocks in Canada

Canada has invited Indian companies to list their stocks at the Toronto Stock Exchange to build their global presence.

TSX chief executive oficer Richard Nesbitt said Indian companies would have global leverage this way as large US institutional investors are important traders in TSX listed stocks, making Canadian markets among the top providers of liquidity in North America

Delivering his keynote address at a meeting organised by the Canada-India Business Council, Nesbitt said the Canadian capital market had raised more money last year in IPO's than Nasdaq.

It has outperformed US markets for nearly a decade. While the S& P 500 was basically flat since 1998, its Canadian equivalent, the S&P/TSX was ahead nearly 70 per cent.

Therefore it was time Toronto was added to corporate India's list of listing destinations, he added.

Top executives of a large number of Canadian and Indo-Canadian companies, Ontario Minister of Finance Greg Sorbara, among others, attended the meeting. A minute's silence was observed by the delegates in memory of Mumbai blast victims.

Nesbitt said that there was potential for stronger relations between Indian energy companies and Canadian investors. Calgary-based Niko Resources, involved with its

Indian partners in search of oil and natural gas, has recently found oil in Bay of Bengal, Nesbitt added.

C-IBC pesident Kam Rathee said the partnership was also expanding in other fields as a number of Indian companies were investing or acquiring Canadian companies.