Fund listings:While new listings may be like gold dust on the Irish Stock Exchange's main market, the exchange's fund listings business is certainly making up for any lack of activity.
By the end of the year, about 600 new funds will have listed on the exchange, a net increase of 4 per cent on the previous year and a gain that confirms its position as the number one market for funds.
Since the exchange started listing funds in 1989, it has grown to a total of 4,500 members. After what was a rather slow start, things have taken off in the past two years, according to Roseanne Kelly, head of investment fund listings at the Irish Stock Exchange.
Ireland is now attracting funds from all over the world. About 30 per cent of the members are domiciled in Ireland, with the remainder coming from a variety of locations, including New York, London and Geneva.
This significant growth in fund listings goes hand in hand with a substantial increase in the funds industry in Ireland, according to Gary Palmer, chief executive of the Irish Funds Industry Association.
While a stock market listing is not essential for a fund, it does provide it with a certain amount of regulation, as well as increasing its exposure by disseminating data and values to financial services around the world, he says.
A listing also opens a fund up to a wider range of investors, including pension funds, some of which are prevented from putting their money into non-listed entities.
Moreover, for the Irish Stock Exchange, the funds business opens up a new area of opportunity. As its overseas rivals seek to consolidate - the London Stock Exchange is currently the subject of a hostile takeover offer from the Nasdaq, and Euronext recently agreed to being bought by the New York Stock Exchange - smaller markets such as Ireland's need to seek other areas of growth.
"What we have done is carved out a niche for ourselves," says Kelly, adding that 16 people are employed at the exchange specifically to facilitate this growth.
For the time being, the plan seems to be working and with as much as €1.2 trillion worth of assets being serviced from Dublin, there appears to be further growth potential.
