NYSE's Grasso Says Public Offering `Not Being Considered'
New York, Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- New York Stock Exchange's
proposed initial public offering, on hold for the past year,
remains on hold indefinitely, Chairman Richard Grasso said.
``A public offering is not being considered,'' Grasso said in
a conference call with reporters about the largest U.S. exchange's
conversion to decimal pricing for stocks from fractions.
``The environment is quite different from two years ago,'' when Grasso
originally proposed selling shares.
Grasso didn't elaborate on how ``the environment'' changed.
Benn Steil, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations,
speculates the chairman believes he couldn't win support for an
offering from the 1,366 members who own the exchange.
``It's institutionally much more difficult than he had hoped
it would be,'' Steil said.
Grasso said in July, 1999, that he expected a public offering
the following Thanksgiving, to raise capital for investing in
technology and possibly to buy an electronic trading network, he
said. At the time, the exchange was under pressure from its
securities firm members and institutional investors to make
trading faster, cheaper and more electronic. Lately, that pressure
has eased.
While Grasso didn't meet the Thanksgiving deadline, he
appointed a panel of exchange directors to study its workings and
ownership. There are no immediate plans for the panel to regroup
to study an IPO, spokesman Ray Pellecchia said.
To be sure, when Grasso first started talking IPO, the U.S.
was clearly in a bull market. The day he called for the
Thanksgiving offering, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at
10,911. Today, 18 months later, it closed at 10,702.
Last week the Nasdaq Stock Market completed its planned
private sale of stock. It raised $516 million, less than it had
anticipated.
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