Nasdaq board to examine IPO

Nasdaq board to examine IPO

BOMBAY (Reuters): The U.S. Nasdaq stockmarket has set up a board committee to examine plans for an initial public offering and expects a decision later this year, Nasdaq vice chairman Alfred R Berkeley told Reuters Television on Friday.

"We have appointed a committee of the board to examine the issue and I expect they would be back with a report later this year, maybe as early as fall," Berkeley, in Bombay to attend the Indian software industry's annual conference, said in an interview.

Speculation that Nasdaq will follow the lead set by two leading European exchanges and list its shares has mounted in recent weeks. Nasdaq is the second-largest U.S. stockmarket after the New York Stock Exchange.

Deutsche Boerse, the German stock exchange operator, listed its shares last Monday through an issue that raised almost one billion euros, while Euronext, the merged entity combining the Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris bourses, plans an initial public offering (IPO) of shares in May.