Stockholm is the leaderThe Nasdaq Nordic exchanges have lately outperformed all European markets. What have been the drivers for this success? With more listings, the Nasdaq Nordic exchange has
outperformed all European markets since 2016. What are
the drivers for this success?
There is a silent revolution in the European listing
space. And the pillars of this slow-building trend are
actually threefold: Nasdaq technology and
infrastructure, the attractiveness of Nordic economic
space and strong, recurring liquidity in the Nasdaq
Nordic markets.
The Nordic market is blessed with a strong, loyal
retail involvement in equities. This means that there is
recurring and healthy liquidity in even micro and small
cap companies. The big institutional players see a
business case in operating in these region's segments.
Beside having around 60 pct. of investors from outside
the Nordic region, Sweden has a strong backbone of
retail and institutional investors supporting all
segments – from First North companies to the global
players in the large-cap segment.
Nasdaq in the Nordics actually consists of different
markets each contributing with their specific flavour.
The common denominator is strong retail involvement, big
pension fund investors, strong corporate governance and
well-functioning economies. But it is fair to say that
Nasdaq Stockholm is by far the cornerstone in attracting
companies.
Adam Kostyál, Head of European Listings, says it's a tremendous milestone to have surpassed LSE’s AIM growth market. AIM was the model on which Nasdaq built the First North
market. It is a tremendous milestone to have become a
market leader. One of the success drivers of First North
and the main differentiator to AIM is that First North
is a stepping stone for SMEs. Today entrepreneurs are
coming to the market to grow their business, learn how
to communicate and to float its stock. Later First North
listed companies want to move onto the main market of
the Nordic exchanges. This dynamic is attracting many
SMEs and growth companies from outside the Nordic
countries. The Marketing Group from Singapore and the UK
is a recent example.
Brexit will certainly offer Stockholm more advantages
than challenges. Stockholm is already leading the
European space and with the stability, transparency and
affluence of the Nordic economies, the Nasdaq Nordic
markets will constitute a strong alternative that will
be hard to ignore for the European growth companies.
Companies aiming for a market will find that Nasdaq has
an obvious advantage.
Listing Highlights 2018Nasdaq Nordic welcomed 83 new listings to its markets
in 2018, raising 2.56 billion EUR in capital. The
Nasdaq First North Growth Market runs parallel to
the main market, where the shares are traded in a
single trading system. This allows approximately 200
European trading members of Nasdaq to easily trade
the two markets.
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Published 25 February 2019 |