NEWS-INDIA: Nasdaq's Indian office to boost domestic companies

[Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>]

Nasdaq's Indian office to boost domestic companies

by Imran Qureshi, India Abroad News Service

Bangalore, Feb 12 - The opening of an office of the global technology stock
market, Nasdaq, here Monday would not only provide Indian companies access
to low cost loans but also give them access to consultancy on the global
capital market.

The liaison office in India's IT capital is only the fourth in the world
outside the U.S. after the U.K., Japan and Brazil.

The office is expected to provide exposure to something like 250,000 money
managers who subscribe to Nasdaq's magazine. "Nasdaq is committed to India
and in return for this honour of opening office in India, we are making our
contribution for 30 families, victims of the Gujarat earthquake, to the
Nasscom fund," Alfred R. Berkeley, vice chairman, Nasdaq, told reporters.
Officials
declined to specify the amount.

The opening of the office of "mutual benefit" got a head start when Wipro
chairman Azim Premji took a swipe at consultants at a seminar on the global
tech stock market. "The advise they give is quite shallow particularly on
when the issue should be listed," he said. Wipro was listed on the New York
Stock Exchange (NYSE) last year - against the advise of a consultant who
felt the company should delay the move - and the move has paid rich
dividends as the market has been climbing.

He compared consultants to swimming coaches who initially tell prospective
trainees that everything is fine. But, once the trainee gets into the pool,
he is told that he should know swimming. Premji did not mention the name of
the consultant who had advised Wipro not to list until January 2001.

"We are going to start small and then add resources because we have a 10
year view for India," said Berkeley, who believes that had Nasdaq not opened
an office in India at this point of time, it would have been a highly
regrettable decision a decade later.

The Nasdaq system, aided by technology, handles 3,000 transactions per
second, trading 2.25 billion shares per day. It touched three billion shares
in one day on January 3. The dollar volume of its trade is greater than the
combined volume of the next three largest exchanges in the world. It reached
a high of $20 trillion last year. Nasdaq lists 4,700 companies, including
Indian companies Infosys technologies, Rediff.com and Satyam.

To get the desired results on Nasdaq, Indian companies would have to get
into the transparent disclosure mode because a high degree of trust is
involved. "We don't have to necessarily change the mindset of Indian
companies. For instance, Infosys is the best example of transparency on
Nasdaq. It puts out its accounts in eight languages and eight accounting
systems. A very simple and pragmatic way of attracting funds," added
Berkeley.

He was not unduly perturbed by the slowdown in the U.S. economy. "Economic
cycles come and go. We just have to take them as they come."