17 May 2004

LSE targets 20 percent of Dutch share trade

Clara Furse, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, wants the bourse to capture at least 20 percent of the Amsterdam market when it launches Dutch share trading later this month, a Dutch newspaper said. Furse said the LSE's ultimate goal to overtake local operator Euronext , and reiterated the LSE's view that the Dutch trading venture is just a first step on the way to expansion into the rest of Europe.

'Holland is just the beginning. We are also looking to the rest of Europe,' Furse told Dutch business daily Financieele Dagblad in an interview. 'We don't see Europe as a collection of local markets. Europe is busy creating a European share market. There are still barriers around national markets, particularly in the area of settling transactions, but these will disappear.'

The LSE, Europe's biggest equity market, will offer trading in 50 top Dutch stocks from May 24 to compete with rival Euronext.

Bourses across Europe are watching the incursion carefully as significant success would overturn conventional wisdom that attracting substantial trading volumes from a rival exchange is difficult.

NA