JSX, AEX ink deal on mutual listings

JSX, AEX ink deal on mutual listings

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) and the Amsterdam Exchanges (AEX) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) here on Tuesday to facilitate mutual listings.

"With the agreement, companies listed on the JSX will in the long run be able to trade their shares on the AEX without passing through listing procedures," JSX president Mas Achmad Daniri told a news conference after the signing of the agreement.

Daniri said the exchanges would need at least one year to prepare for the mutual listings because they would first have to reconcile their respective trading regulations and listing requirements.

AEX executive board member Hans Brouwer described the MoU as a breakthrough in the two exchanges' relations, but he said that realizing the mutual listing agreement would take time.

"There is a long way to go and it is not easy. We have to think about all the requirements which have to be harmonized. That's a lot of work, not only in the area of stock exchanges, but also in the area of the national law and supervisory board and so on."

For example, if the AEX stipulated that a company had to be profitable for the two years prior to its listing on the exchange, then JSX should also adopt such a regulation, Brouwer said.

He said there were many companies from Indonesia which could be listed on the AEX, such as those in the telecom sector.

Dutch companies that would want to be listed on the JSX were those with operations in Indonesia, he added, and most of them were already listed on the AEX.

"If they want to expand their operations and need capital to expand their activities in Indonesia, they must have the possibility to go to the JSX," he said.

Daniri said a joint listing with the AEX would help the JSX become a world class stock exchange while competing with other stock trading operators in other emerging markets.

The AEX, with market capitalization of US$800 billion, is the ninth biggest stock exchange in the world.

There are 700 companies listed on the AEX, of which 250 are foreign companies from the U.S., Canada, Japan and European countries.

AEX has its 17 biggest stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange and 30 of its other stocks listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

AEX consists of three exchanges -- a stock exchange, option exchange and commodity exchange, Brouwer said. (udi)