NZ stock market’s Nasdaq deal
The New Zealand stock exchange has signed a deal to work more closely with American tech company market the Nasdaq. The agreement got the thumbs up from an executive who works closely with Kiwi startups, who said anything that gives the local market an edge over the Australian stock exchange is a good thing.
The deal could allow Kiwi companies to more easily dual-list on both the NZX and the Nasdaq and likewise allow some Nasdaq-listed companies to dual-list here.
New Zealand investors may also get more access to investments like US exchange-traded funds through the deal.
Speaking from New York, NZX chief executive Mark Peterson said he was very pleased and excited about the opportunity.
“The key thing about this release is we are keen to offer more value to our issuers.”
Peterson said he hoped the deal would also make the NZX more attractive for prospective new listings.
He said the Nasdaq was also keen to use the NZX to test new innovation as a beta site.
“The Nasdaq is really keen to work with us,” he said.
NZX already has a close technology relationship with Nasdaq, operating its trading and surveillance systems since 2012.
Peterson said it began talks with the US exchange at the end of last year and it had taken a little bit of time to do the deal.
“It’s not a fiveminute thing, we want it to be a long-lasting relationship,” he said.
The memorandum of understanding enables issuers listed on the Nasdaq’s top-tier equity board, the Global Select Market, to apply for a secondary listing on the NZX under the foreign exempt issuer regime.
Under this regime, issuers comply with the primary rules of their home exchange, and are exempt from almost all NZX listing rules. NZX chairman James Miller said the Nasdaq MOU complemented relationships it had already with the Singapore and Hong Kong exchanges.
“We look forward to working with Nasdaq to generate opportunities for investors and companies in our respective markets.”
A visit from top Nasdaq executives is expected to further the discussions. Andy Hamilton, the boss of business development company Icehouse, said the deal looked interesting.
Icehouse works closely with Kiwi startups and Hamilton said the value which NZX had offered tech companies lately had been weak compared with the market across the Tasman.
“The tech companies that do list typically are listing on [the] ASX. I think anything that improves NZX’s value proposition has got to be a good thing and a tie up one of two big capital markets in the world . . . that’s a positive thing,” he said.
What wouldn’t change, Hamilton said, was strength needed within a business to justify a dual-listing and the cost that goes with that.
Hamilton was unsure what advantage companies listed on the Nasdaq would see in an dual NZX-listing.
“But I could be proved wrong,” he said.