Asia lures U.S. investors

Asia lures U.S. investors

SINGAPORE (AFP): Investors from the United States are being
increasingly drawn to Asian firms they feel offer better growth
opportunities than U.S. companies, the New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE) president said in remarks published yesterday.

"There's a growing interest among U.S. investors in investing
in non-U.S. companies, especially those from the Asia-Pacific
area," Richard Grasso told Singapore's Business Times.

He, however, added that the U.S. investors' interest in Asian
companies, although growing, was still at an embryonic stage as
even the most aggressive U.S. manager has less than seven percent
of his portfolio in non-U.S. securities.

Grasso, president and vice-chairman of the NYSE, was in
Singapore over the weekend on a mission that will also take him
to Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia to draw more Asian firms to get
listed on U.S. bourses, the daily said.

Grasso, who will take over in June as chairman of the NYSE,
said going global was the only way for the U.S. capital market to
grow faster. Some 80 percent of 2,800 U.S. companies that qualify
are already listed on the bourse.

The remaining 20 percent would be able to increase the NYSE's
market capitalization only by nine percent, he said.

But just the top one-third of 2,000 non-U.S. companies the
NYSE has targeted could more than double the bourse's size. Some
500 of the companies are from the Asia-Pacific region.

Only about 30 Asian, non-Japanese, companies are listed on the
NYSE presently.