ELECTRONICS: NASDAQ EUROPE CONSIGNED TO HIGH TECH STOCK MARKET CEMETERY.

A French banker explained that "at the outset Nasdaq Europe attracted companies a little larger than those attracted to New Markets but that these companies rapidly preferred to be quoted on the genuine market and concluded that this intermediate market was of little interest". Launched on March 27, 2001 though the acquisition of a majority stake by the American company Nasdaq in the European HighTech stock market Easdaq, the electronic exchange always struggled to attract enterprises and to ensure a critical mass of transactions. Its disappearance highlights the difficulties faced by markets dedicated to high growth companies launched during the stock market euphoria at the end of the nineties but whose market values plunged with the new economy and which have now been deserted by investors and companies whose stock market ratings have shrunk like ice on a sunny day.

On the majority of these markets, new floatations have dried up since autumn 2000: the Californian company Biolase was the last to be floated on Nasdaq Europe in September 2002, whilst the latest addition to the Euronext new market, Universal Multimedia, arrived fifteen months ago. Already last autumn, the Frankfurt stock exchange decided to close its five-year old Newmarket by the end of 2003, the market's reputation having been sullied by a series of scandals involving new economy enterprises. By contrast, like the Milan exchange, the Euronext market on which 147 companies are quoted, will continue to exist as an independent entity, though reforms designed to restore investor confidence are due to be introduced in the autumn. These reforms will focus on three axes: the creation of a specific compartment for companies known to be in financial difficulty...