By Huw Jones
LONDON (Reuters) – Euronext set out on Tuesday a new technology leaders segment to help tech and growth companies develop a pan-European profile for asset managers and other investors.
Euronext said its top growth and tech company listings such as ASML, Just Eat Takeaway.com, Tom Tom and Ubisoft now form a new segment which can be tracked by a new index from July.
They must have a minimum 300 million euros ($320.67 million)in market capitalisation and a minimum growth rate to be included, with no performance criteria for those with a market capitalisation of more than 1 billion euros.
Euronext said the new segment will also offer pre-listing services to help privately-held high growth companies float by offering advisory services and executive training.
Europe has long sought to foster ‘home grown’ tech giants to compete with Nasdaq, often the favoured exchange for global tech listings.
“We do not compete with Nasdaq,” Stephane Boujnah, Euronext’s chief executive, told reporters. “What we are trying to develop here is a fundamentally different approach.”
The aim is to defragment tech listings which are spread across national markets to give them a European profile and offer a sector-wide view to investors, Boujnah said.
Neuer Markt, a special tech segment on Deutsche Boerse in Frankfurt was set up in 1997 as Europe’s answer to Nasdaq but collapsed just five years later as the dotcom bubble burst.
Attempts by the European Union to deepen its capital market have intensified after Britain left the bloc and began to attract more listings to London and compete with the Amsterdam exchange run by Euronext.
Euronext said it has over 700 listed tech companies with a total market capitalisation of 1.5 trillion euros. Of the total 212 new equity listings last year, more than half came from the tech sector, it said.
($1 = 0.9355 euros)
(Reporting by Huw Jones, Editing by Louise Heavens)
