New Delhi, Dec 2: The New York Stock Exchange has evinced a keen interest to rope in the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited for listing on its bourse. "US investors are known to lap up share offerings of telecom companies, especially from government-owned companies," said vice- president, Asia-Pacific of NYSE, James E Shapiro. According to Shapiro, MTNL and VSNL were good bets to pave the way for other Indian companies to get themselves listed on NYSE.Currently, no Indian company is listed on the NYSE although companies like Infosys and NIIT have announced their plans to tap the US markets. "Information technolgy shares may be a big thing in India, but in the US, telecom stocks are big attraction among investors. Government-owned telecom companies from France and other countries have successfully raised funds from the US and got themselves listed at NYSE," Shapiro said.
For listing in the US markets, companies have to adhere to higher disclosure and accounting standards,besides coming under the direct regulation of the Securities Exchange Commission, the US Stock market regulator, he said.By listing in the US markets, companies will have a good liquidity and larger investor base, Shapiro said.
Shapiro said there is considerable interest among US Investors for Asian stocks and this trend is expected to continue. "The volume of trade in Asian stocks and their values have gone up in 1998 compared to the previous years. This clearly shows that there is lot of interest for stocks from the region," he said.
Shapiro said there were large number of investors who tend to look at the company and not necessarily the country where it is based before investing in share offerings. "If the company is good and ready to adhere to world class accounting and disclosure standards, many US investors are willing to put their money in," he said.
However, there were another class of investors who take into account the country where the company is based before investing, he said. Theseinvestors take into account fiscal deficit position, the strength of currency and other macro-economic indicators of the country before investing in a particular scrip, Shapiro added.
On Infosys, he said the company could list on NYSE once the market condition in both the US and India improves. "Currently, there is no activity in the US markets. No deals are taking place, which is not the trend during the year-end," he said, adding that a company like Infosys could afford to wait for some time before listing on NYSE.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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