Cross listing

Last updated

Cross-listing (or multi-listing, or interlisting) of shares is when a firm lists its equity shares on one or more foreign stock exchange in addition to its domestic exchange. To be cross-listed, a company must thus comply with the requirements of all the stock exchanges in which it is listed, such as filing.

Contents

Cross-listing should not be confused with other methods that allow a company's stock to be traded in two different exchanges, such as:

Generally such a company's primary listing is on a stock exchange in its country of incorporation, and its secondary listing(s) is/are on an exchange in another country. Cross-listing is especially common for companies that started out in a small market but grew into a larger market. For example, numerous large non-U.S. companies are listed on the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ as well as on their respective national exchanges such as BlackBerry, Enbridge, Equinor, Ericsson, Nokia, Toyota and Sony.

Difference with Depository Receipts

Depository Receipts (DR) are instruments derived from another underlying instrument while Multi-listed instruments represent the actual stock of a company. DR are convertible back to ordinary shares, following a process dependent upon the sponsoring facility that created the instrument. Ownership of a DR does not convey the same rights as a direct holder of equity shares, but in most cases the DR is convertible back into the original instrument through a process of conversion. The DR receive a different ISIN number, recognizing that they are not the same fungible instrument as the underlying stock. Popular DR include American Depositary Receipts (ADR), European Depositary Receipts (EDR), global depository receipts (GDR, also referred to as international depository receipts), and Global Registered Shares (GRS).

Multi listed or cross-listed shares, by contrast, are technically the same financial instrument. Fungibility is a concern across markets. For example, shares of IBM cannot be purchased on NYSE and sold, same-day, on the London Stock Exchange, even though IBM is cross listed in both markets. There is a re-registration process that must occur to move the number of outstanding shares from one jurisdiction to the other. This is primarily due to market inefficiencies and structures required to maintain the integrity of registered shares within specific jurisdictions (typically regulatory driven).

When a company decides to cross-list, the stock is technically fungible between exchanges. Royal Dutch Shell, IBM, and Siemens are all examples where the same issue is traded in multiple markets. However, in Frankfurt and Paris, they are traded in EUR, London in GBP, and on NYSE in USD. Prices are subject to local market conditions, as well as FX fluctuations and are not kept in perfect parity between markets. They tend to be more liquid than ADRs, GDRs and those types of conventions. While 'technically' fungible, these separate primary listings (they would all be considered 'primary' listings) are subject to re-registration which creates significant settlement risk if an investor wants to buy on one exchange and sell in another (especially where the currencies differ).

Difference with admitted for trading

Shares traded in a true cross listing / multi listed scenario are processed, matched and settled via the market mechanisms specific to the local exchange. In this regard, even though shares of IBM bought on NYSE and shares of IBM purchased on LSE are technically the same instrument, those purchased on NYSE will settle via the mechanisms associated with NYSE and the DTCC in the United States. Those shares purchased on the LSE will settle via the mechanisms of the LSE and CREST in the United Kingdom.

Shares 'admitted for trading', such as IBM listed via ARCA in Frankfurt, will settle via DTCC. It is important to note that IBM is also cross-listed in Frankfurt, in which case, those transactions will settle via the local German market processes.

Motivations for cross-listing

The academic literature has identified a number of different arguments to cross-list abroad in addition to a listing on the domestic exchange. Roosenboom and Van Dijk (2009) [1] distinguish between the following motivations:

Costs of cross-listing

There are, however, also disadvantages in deciding to cross-list: increased pressure on executives due to closer public scrutiny; increased reporting and disclosure requirements; additional scrutiny by analysts in advanced market economies, and additional listing fees. Some financial media have argued that the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley act in the United States has made the NYSE less attractive for cross-listings, but recent academic research finds little evidence to support this, see Doidge, Karolyi, and Stulz (2007). [3]

Value creation of cross-listings

There is a vast academic literature on the impact of cross-listings on the value of the cross-listed firms. Most studies (for example, Miller, 1999) find that a cross-listing on a U.S. stock market by a non-U.S. firm is associated with a significantly positive stock price reaction in the home market. [4] This finding suggests that the stock market expects the cross-listing to have a positive impact on firm value. Doidge, Karolyi, and Stulz (2004) [5] show that companies with a cross-listing in the United States have a higher valuation than non-cross-listed corporations, especially for firms with high growth opportunities domiciled in countries with relatively weak investor protection. The premium they find is larger for companies listed at official US stock exchanges (Level II and III ADR programs) than for over-the-counter listings (Level I ADR program) and private placements (Rule 144A ADR's). Doidge, Karolyi, and Stulz (2004) argue that a cross-listing in the United States reduces the extent to which controlling shareholders can engage in expropriation (through "bonding" to the high corporate governance standards in the United States) and thereby increases the firm's ability to take advantage of growth opportunities. Recent research, [6] shows that the listing premium for cross-listing has evaporated, due to new U.S. regulations and competition from other exchanges. Some recent academic research finds that smaller foreign firms seeking cross listing venues may be opting for UK exchanges over U.S. exchanges due to the costs imposed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. On the other hand, larger firms seeking "bonding" benefits from a U.S. listing continue to seek a U.S. exchange listing. [7] There are also studies, however, such as Sarkissian and Schill (2009), [8] who argue that cross-listings do not create long-term valuation benefits.

The academic literature largely ignores cross-listings on non-U.S. exchanges. However, there are many cross-listings on exchanges in Europe and Asia. Even U.S. firms are cross-listed in other countries. In the 1950s there was a wave of cross-listings of U.S. firms in Belgium, in the 1960s in France, in the 1970s in the U.K., and in the 1980s in Japan (see Sarkissian and Schill, 2014). [9] Roosenboom and van Dijk (2009) [1] analyze 526 cross-listings from 44 different countries on 8 major stock exchanges and document significant stock price reactions of 1.3% on average for cross-listings on US exchanges, 1.1% on London Stock Exchange, 0.6% on exchanges in continental Europe, and 0.5% on Tokyo Stock Exchange. These findings suggest that cross-listings on Anglo-Saxon exchanges create more value than on other exchanges. They also highlight the incomplete understanding of why firms cross-list outside the UK and the United States, as many of the arguments discussed above (enhanced liquidity, improved disclosure, and bonding) do not apply. In this respect, Sarkissian and Schill (2014) show that cross-listing activity in a given host country coincides with the outperformance of host and proximate home country's economies and financial markets, thus, highlighting the market timing component in cross-listing decisions.

See also

Related Research Articles

In economics and finance, arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a difference in prices in two or more markets – striking a combination of matching deals to capitalise on the difference, the profit being the difference between the market prices at which the unit is traded. When used by academics, an arbitrage is a transaction that involves no negative cash flow at any probabilistic or temporal state and a positive cash flow in at least one state; in simple terms, it is the possibility of a risk-free profit after transaction costs. For example, an arbitrage opportunity is present when there is the possibility to instantaneously buy something for a low price and sell it for a higher price.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarbanes–Oxley Act</span> 2002 U.S. law regarding corporate accounting

The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that mandates certain practices in financial record keeping and reporting for corporations. The act,, also known as the "Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act" and "Corporate and Auditing Accountability, Responsibility, and Transparency Act" and more commonly called Sarbanes–Oxley, SOX or Sarbox, contains eleven sections that place requirements on all U.S. public company boards of directors and management and public accounting firms. A number of provisions of the Act also apply to privately held companies, such as the willful destruction of evidence to impede a federal investigation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ticker symbol</span> Abbreviation identifying specific shares

A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. In short, ticker symbols are arrangements of symbols or characters representing specific assets or securities listed on a stock exchange or traded publicly. A stock symbol may consist of letters, numbers, or a combination of both. "Ticker symbol" refers to the symbols that were printed on the ticker tape of a ticker tape machine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">S&P 500</span> American stock market index

The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 of the largest companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices and includes approximately 80% of the total market capitalization of U.S. public companies.

An American depositary receipt is a negotiable security that represents securities of a foreign company and allows that company's shares to trade in the U.S. financial markets.

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund that is also an exchange-traded product, i.e., it is traded on stock exchanges. ETFs own financial assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies, debts, futures contracts, and/or commodities such as gold bars. The list of assets that each ETF owns, as well as their weightings, is posted on the website of the issuer daily, or quarterly in the case of active non-transparent ETFs. Many ETFs provide some level of diversification compared to owning an individual stock.

A depositary receipt (DR) is a negotiable financial instrument issued by a bank to represent a foreign company's publicly traded securities. The depositary receipt trades on a local stock exchange. Depositary receipts facilitates buying shares in foreign companies, because the shares do not have to leave the home country.

AIM is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows companies that are smaller, less-developed, or want/need a more flexible approach to governance to float shares with a more flexible regulatory system than is applicable on the main market.

OTC Markets Group, Inc. is an American financial market providing price and liquidity information for almost 10,000 over-the-counter (OTC) securities. The group has its headquarters in New York City. OTC-traded securities are organized into three markets to inform investors of opportunities and risks: OTCQX, OTCQB and Pink.

A global depository receipt is a general name for a depositary receipt where a certificate issued by a depository bank, which purchases shares of foreign companies, creates a security on a local exchange backed by those shares. They are the global equivalent of the original American depositary receipts (ADR) on which they are based. GDRs represent ownership of an underlying number of shares of a foreign company and are commonly used to invest in companies from developing or emerging markets by investors in developed markets.

iShares Family of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) managed by BlackRock

iShares is a collection of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) managed by BlackRock, which acquired the brand and business from Barclays in 2009. The first iShares ETFs were known as World Equity Benchmark Shares (WEBS) but have since been rebranded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caracas Stock Exchange</span>

The Caracas Stock Exchange or Bolsa de Valores de Caracas (BVC) is a stock exchange located in Caracas, Venezuela. Established in 1947, BVC merged with a competitor in 1974.

The NYSE Composite (^NYA) is a stock market index covering all common stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange, including American depositary receipts, real estate investment trusts, tracking stocks, and foreign listings. It includes corporations in each of the ten industries listed in the Industry Classification Benchmark. It uses free-float market cap weighting.

Qualified institutional placement (QIP) is a capital-raising tool, primarily used in India and other parts of southern Asia, whereby a listed company can issue equity shares, fully and partly convertible debentures, or any securities other than warrants which are convertible to equity shares to a qualified institutional buyer (QIB).

Indian Depository Receipt (IDR) is a financial instrument denominated in Indian Rupees in the form of a depository receipt. The IDR is a specific Indian version of the similar global depository receipts.

BMO Capital Markets is the investment banking subsidiary of Canadian Bank of Montreal. The company offers corporate, institutional and government clients access to a range of financial services. These include equity and debt underwriting, corporate lending and project financing, merger and acquisitions advisory services, securitization, treasury management, market risk management, debt and equity research and institutional sales and trading.

A European depositary receipt (EDR) represents ownership in the shares of a non-European company that trades in European financial markets. It is a European equivalent of the original American depositary receipts (ADR). The EDR is issued by a bank in Europe representing stocks traded on an exchange outside of the bank’s home country.

Söhnke Matthias Bartram is a professor in the Department of Finance at Warwick Business School (WBS). He is also a research fellow in the Financial Economics programme and the International Macroeconomics and Finance programme of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), a charter member of Risk Who's Who, and a member of an international think tank for policy advice to the German government. Prior to joining the University of Warwick, he held faculty positions at Lancaster University and Maastricht University and worked for several years in quantitative investment management at State Street Global Advisors as Head of the London Advanced Research Center.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF trust is an exchange-traded fund which trades on the NYSE Arca under the symbol SPY. SPDR is an acronym for the Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts, the former name of the ETF. It is designed to track the S&P 500 stock market index. This fund is the largest and oldest ETF in the world. SPDR is a trademark of Standard and Poor's Financial Services LLC, a subsidiary of S&P Global. The ETF's CUSIP is 78462F103 and its ISIN is US78462F1030. The trustee of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust is State Street Bank and Trust Company. The fund has a net expense ratio of 0.0945%.

Cross border listings is the practice of listing a company's common shares on a different exchange than its primary stock exchange.

References

  1. 1 2 Roosenboom, Peter; Van Dijk, Mathijs A. (14 April 2009). "The Market Reaction to Cross-Listings: Does the Destination Market Matter?". ssrn.com. SSRN   1047261.
  2. Khanna, Tarun; Palepu, Krishna; Srinivasan, Suraj (December 2003). "Disclosure Practices of Foreign Companies Interacting with U.S. Markets". ssrn.com. SSRN   408621.
  3. "Has New York Become Less Competitive in Global Markets? Evaluating Foreign Listing Choices over Time". ssrn.com. SSRN   982193.
  4. Miller, Darius, 1999, The market reaction to international cross-listings: Evidence from depositary receipts. Journal of Financial Economics 51, 103-123.
  5. Doidge, Craig Andrew; Karolyi, George Andrew; Stulz, René M. (2001). "Why are Foreign Firms Listed in the U.S. Worth More?". ssrn.com. doi:10.2139/ssrn.285337. SSRN   285337.
  6. "Crosslisting". crosslisting.com.
  7. "Regulation and Bonding: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Flow of International Listings". ssrn.com. SSRN   956987.
  8. "Are There Permanent Valuation Gains to Overseas Listings?". ssrn.com. SSRN   395140.
  9. "Cross-Listing Waves". ssrn.com. SSRN   1244042.