Amex to Become For-Profit Firm, May Hold IPO
The member-owned American Stock Exchange plans to turn itself into a for-profit company by 2007 in preparation for possibly offering stock in itself.
The century-old exchange -- once known as the Curb for its beginning as an outdoor street market near its current lower-Manhattan floor -- is the latest to try to take advantage of investors' growing interest in owning a piece of the places where financial instruments trade. Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc.'s 2002 initial public offering set off a wave of stock offerings and mergers that have taken exchanges from the New York Stock Exchange to the Chicago Board of Trade public.
Smaller exchanges like the Amex are now trying to get a piece of the action.
The exchange, which offers small stocks, options and exchange-traded funds, has struggled over the years to forge an identity in the shadow of the much larger NYSE, which recently went public via the acquisition of an already public company, electronic-trading outfit Archipelago Holdings. Based on current seat values, the stock-market value of the entire Amex would only be about $180 million, well below the $13 billion market value of NYSE Group Inc., the Big Board parent.
The Amex sits behind NYSE and Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. and fights for third place among options exchanges, well behind the International Securities Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange. And while the Amex pioneered trading of ETFs, popular baskets of investments that trade like stock, it lost market share in that business as other exchanges started to compete.
"We have something to prove," said Neal Wolkoff, the Amex's chief executive officer since April 2005. "We have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder."
Mr. Wolkoff said the exchange hopes to "demutualize" -- in other words, vote to disband its member-owned structure -- with the ultimate goal of offering stock to the public in coming months. Amex will need approval of two-thirds of its 864 members, the Securities and Exchange Commission and a final nod from its board to move forward. Its board, however, voted yesterday to start the process.
Amex aims to be profitable by the time of its IPO after making investments in technology this year. Mr. Wolkoff is also contemplating bringing in a handful of Wall Street investors in coming months to help launch an electronic trading network to compete for business in NYSE- and Nasdaq-listed stocks.
美国证交所拟成为以盈利为目的的公司
美国证券交易所(American Stock Exchange)计划到2007年将自己转变成一家以盈利为目的的公司，并著手准备自己的首次公开募股(IPO)。
投资者对或多或少拥有金融工具交易场所一份所有权的兴趣日益浓厚，而美国证交所正成为欲从这种浓厚兴趣中获益的最新一家交易所。2002年芝加哥商品交易所(Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc.)进行IPO，由此触发了一波交易所上市和并购热潮，从纽约证交所(New York Stock Exchange)到芝加哥交易所(Chicago Board of Trade)均卷入其中。
像美国证交所这样规模较小的交易所也不甘寂寞，开始行动起来。
基于现有的席位估值，整个美国证交所的市值可能仅为1.8亿美元左右，远低于纽约证交所母公司NYSE Group Inc.的130亿美元。
2005年4月开始担任美国证交所首席执行长的Neal Wolkoff表示，该交易所希望舍弃成员所有制结构，最终目标是在未来几个月内公开上市。但要实现这个目标，美国证交所必须从其864个成员那里获得至少三分之二的赞成票，还需要得到美国证券交易委员会(Securities and Exchange Commission, 简称SEC)和董事会的批准。不过，美国证交所董事会周三已投票同意启动这一进程。
美国证交所今年开始投资科技领域，并计划在IPO之际实现盈利。此外，Wolkoff正盘算著在未来数月内引进一些华尔街投资者，帮助推出电子交易网络，以吸引在纽约证交所和那斯达克(Nasdaq)的上市公司。
