NEW DELHI, Dec 2: The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has evinced keen interest to rope in state-owned blue chip telecom companies Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) for listing on its bourse.``US investors are known to lap up share offerings of telecom companies specially from government-owned companies,'' vice-president, Asia Pacific of NYSE James E Shapiro told PTI, adding that 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 though companies like Infosys and NIIT have announced their plans to tap the US markets. ``Information technology 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 US and got themselves listed at NYSE,'' Shapiro said.
For listing in the US markets, companies should adhere to higherdisclosure and accounting standards, besides coming under direct regulation of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), the US stock market regulator, he said.
By listing in the US markets, companies will have good liquidity and larger investor base, Shapiro said. Shapiro said currently there was considerable interest among U.S investors for Asian stocks and this trend was 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 a 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 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 takes into account the country where thecompany is based before investing, he said.
These investors 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 the NYSE once the condition in both 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 in NYSE.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.