NYSE CEO heading to China to attract listings

New York: NYSE Group Inc Chief Executive John Thain travels to China this week on a mission to lure more listings to the world's largest stock market. The trip also has another purpose, almost like house hunting in a new neighbourhood.

Thain, who has been at the helm of the New York Stock Exchange for three years, has his eyes set on Asia as the next step in his plan to build a global financial marketplace. The NYSE's $13 billion combination with the Paris-based Euronext exchange is expected to be approved soon by European regulators, setting up a shareholder vote there on December 19.

The NYSE now trades shares of only 31 companies from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. But Chinese companies have been among the NYSE's hottest initial public offerings this year, and persuading more to list could make it easier for individual investors in the US to gain access to their shares.

Investment advisors have long talked about the benefits of overseas diversification among investor holdings. Consider that Hong Kong's Hang Seng composite has soared 35 per cent this year, topping the Dow Jones industrials' 15 per cent gain and the Standard & Poor's 500 index's 12 per cent rise.

That helps explain why Thain's ambitions go far beyond boosting listings on the Big Board. "Over the next three to five years, we will become global and more diversified. The next logical spot is Asia," Thain said.

"At some point we want a position in the Chinese market and in the Indian market." He isn't alone. Rival Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. this week announced its making another bid for the London Stock Exchange, and CEO Robert Greifeld also believes Asia remains a necessity to go global.