Lse May Open Office In India

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is looking at setting up an office in India in the next 12 months, if the response from Indian companies is substantial.

Marc Bailey, director (business development), said, "We have met a number of Indian companies seeking to raise funds overseas in the last few months and the response has been very good."

Meanwhile, Deborah Medley Foye, LSE country manager (India), said, "We think around 50 Indian companies are likely to come to the LSE in the near future. There are 10-15 biotech and about 20 infotech firms which have evinced interest in listing on the bourse."

 

Bailey said three Indian companies - from diverse sectors - which were thinking of listing on the Nasdaq, had promised to consider LSE as an alternate destination.

The LSE officials said the privatisation programme in India was also interesting and they would be initiating a dialogue with the government circles in order to induce these companies to list on their exchange.

However Bailey made it clear that listed companies in India stood a better chance of getting listed on the LSE as opposed to unlisted companies.

The overwhelming response from Indian companies comes after the creation of a new technology mart at the LSE -- Techmark -- where companies can list through the issue of retail depository receipts (RDRs).

The LSE had created a separate segment, Techmark Mediscience, in November last in order to attract more biotech companies.

"The drift towards LSE was not only in IT and biotech but also in manufacturing and a wide range of other sectors," Bailey said,

Commenting on why more number of companies opt for LSE, Bailey explained " London possesses the funds, market liquidity and it has the necessary expertise to attract international issuers and investor and there are over 10,000 institutional investors who globally access the London market."

Thus far, most Indian companies listed on the LSE through global depository receipts, which could be traded only by institutional investors. On the other hand, RDRs can be traded by both institutional and retail investors.

Currently, 18 Indian companies are listed on the Luxemburg Stock Exchange including Gas Authority of India, BSES, Steel Authority of India, State Bank of India, Bajaj Auto, Ashok Leyland, Tata Tea, SSI Technologies, Aptech, SIEL, JK Corp, EID Parry, Crompton Greeves, CESC, Indian Hotels, East India Hotels and Raymonds.

Commenting on new initiative taken by the LSE, Bailely said, "We have just completed a 30 million pound programme upgrades and improvements to both out trading and information system and a large part of this was spend on upgrading our trading systems to new Compaq Tandem hardware."

Last year, LSE also completed a groundbreaking agreement with Johannesburg Securities Exchange to provide core technology solutions.