Over 100 Indian companies have started posting earnings as per the US GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) guidelines and all of them are mulling to list on the US stock exchanges, investment-banking sources said.
With the Indian companies continuing to expand their footprints on the US shores and the overseas revenues playing a larger role in their balance sheets, particularly in the IT sector, the companies are increasingly getting attracted to the brand value addition and exposure a US listing provides, they said.
This emerging trend is driving both the NYSE and Nasdaq to go an extra mile for wooing Indian companies to get listed in the US, promising fair and transparent exchange markets. Both the exchanges are in talks with several Indian companies for a US listing.
Nasdaq Stock Market president and CEO Robert Greifeld told PTI from New York, "We are currently in talks with several Indian companies drawn from various sectors and are confident that we will see more Indian companies listing on Nasdaq in the future."
"India poses an exciting opportunity among the various countries in the world today. The country's GDP is firmly on an 8 per cent plus growth path and it offers a huge opportunity for business," he said.
There are seven Indian companies already listed on the Nasdaq, while 10 companies are trading on the NYSE, including WNS, which got listed last week.
In July this year, Infosys rung the opening bell of Nasdaq from its Mysore facility in the first ever such ceremony through an electronic sign-in screen.
Greifeld, who was present on the occasion, said that Infosys was a shining example of what can be achieved with a clear and compelling vision, talented workforce and world-class corporate governance.
Out of a total of around 120 Indian companies listed overseas, only a handful have listed in the US markets. Nasdaq has seven Indian companies on its exchange with a market cap of around $32 billion (nearly Rs 1,47,200 crore) including - Infosys, Sify and Rediff.
At present, there are about 3,200 companies listed on the Nasdaq, including 332 international companies.
"In many ways Indian companies are still experimenting with the US option and as they seek to go global, we could expect many more Indian listings in the US and on Nasdaq," Greifeld said.
Nasdaq believes that the US capital markets are the most robust in the world and in time more Indian companies will gravitate toward the investor base and the visibility that the US markets provide.
Nasdaq seems to be stealing the thunder from its competitor NYSE for now, as far as IPOs are concerned. Greifeld said Nasdaq had 23 international listings compared to NYSE's 12 in 2004 and in 2005 Nasdaq had 22 international IPOs as against NYSE's 9.
In July, Nasdaq launched its new listing tier, the Nasdaq Global Select Market, which has approximately 1,200 companies including Infosys, Cognizant and Covansys.
