Post-Enron rules keep foreign companies away from Wall Street

[Demeter]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/enron/story/0,,1879338,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

David Teather
Saturday September 23, 2006
The Guardian


The New York Stock Exchange has made a frank admission about the severe impact of tighter and more costly regulations that were introduced in the wake of the Enron scandal on the number of international companies coming to Wall Street. The figures are contained in a 730-page document filed with regulators in Washington that details the NYSE's planned $10bn takeover of Euronext, the owner of the main stock markets in Paris, Lisbon, Brussels and Amsterdam.

The filing warns among its "risk factors" that "the legal and regulatory environment in the United States" may make it difficult for the NYSE to compete for listings of foreign companies.
It says that in 2000, the year before the Enron collapse, 50% of the proceeds raised by international companies in the US markets was done privately, while between 1996 and 1999, the NYSE listed an average 48 international companies a year. In 2005, after the impact of the Enron-related Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, 94% of the money raised by international companies in the US was private. The number of foreign companies listing on the NYSE over the past five years has fallen to an average of 33. The filing outlines the structure planned by the NYSE to ringfence the European exchanges owned by Euronext to protect them from the more onerous US regulatory regime. The company would create a Dutch entity to oversee the European markets and prevent US rules from having any adverse impact.

London Stock Exchange chief, Clara Furse, argued in an editorial this week that London was attracting a greater volume of international listings because of the quality of the London exchange. She cited figures showing the LSE had attracted 152 international companies in the past 18 months compared to 54 for the NYSE and rival US Nasdaq combined. Ed Balls, economic secretary to the Treasury last week promised to give the Financial Services Authority, the City regulator, new powers to prevent US regulations being imposed in London in the event of a takeover. Nasdaq has built a 25.1% stake in the London exchange and is widely expected to make a full bid for the exchange later this year.

The NYSE merger with Euronext is still dependent on shareholder approval in December. It faces a rival bid for Euronext from the Frankfurt exchange, Deutsche Börse. Sources close to the NYSE privately accuse Deutsche Börse of waging a dirty campaign aimed at derailing the NYSE deal. According to figures circulated by NYSE's broker, Citigroup, Deutsche Börse has been trying to support its own shares by buying up stock. It also notes an unusual level of short selling against the NYSE - betting on a fall in the share price - though there is no evidence that it has been driven by the German bourse.

[lgn19087]

1. Well thats to be expected

When you impose such tight restrictions on companies, they go elsewhere! The market at work. We can all thank that bastard Fastow for this one.

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. A dying empire - it is the UNITED STATES that is in it's "last throes"

.
.
.

Sure, they will kill millions more before they fall,

But all imperialistic nations will fall.

Even the timid kid will end up kicking the bully on the block in the shin eventually . . .

The bully on the block better get ready for one heck of a shin kick,

cuz it ain't just one kid on the block that is getting tired of the bullying - -

It's the whole WORLD!