The head of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) confirmed the bourse will be setting up an office in Beijing as it tries to draw more entrepreneurial companies from China to list in New York.

John Thain, chief executive officer of the NYSE group, also said he was keen to find ways of working with the Shanghai Stock Exchange, such as helping Chinese companies launch dual listing in Shanghai and New York.

Thain made the comments during a speech to business leaders and students in Shanghai on Tuesday.

Thain confirmed reports that the NYSE is planning to open an office in Beijing in a bid to get more Chinese firms to list on the US bourse. It has offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo.

The exchange currently has 31 listed Chinese companies, including 18 from the mainland.

"We have welcomed leading Chinese entrepreneurial companies and we strongly believe that Chinese companies can benefit from their relationship with us," Thain said in the speech at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS). "There's huge investor demand in the United States for these entrepreneurial Chinese companies."

Chinese entrepreneurial companies have been among the NYSE's hottest initial public offerings this year.

Thain also outlined his hopes of working more closely with Shanghai.

Last week, the Composite Stock Index on the Shanghai Stock Exchange broke the 2,000-point level for the first time in five years.

"The Chinese exchanges, particularly Shanghai, are doing much better recently and we have a memorandum of understanding and co-operation with them," Thain said.

"We would like to find ways to work more with the Shanghai Stock Exchange," he said.” I don't see the Shanghai Stock Exchange as a competitor.

Thain said the exchange believes it is in the interest of companies to list both in their domestic exchange and on an international exchange.

"We think they get better options being listed on the New York Stock Exchange and it makes sense being listed in the domestic market, too, if that's possible," he said.

He said the NYSE will work with Shanghai companies to list domestically and in New York.

Thain delivered his speech as part of a visit to China to try to attract more listings to the world's largest stock market.

"I always look forward to coming back to China because I get to meet China's next generation of leaders at a very important time for your country and its economy," Thain told audience members at CEIBS." China is rapidly moving to the centre stage to become one of the major players in the world."

During his visit to China, Thain also pushed the NYSE's plan to open a local office in the capital. He said he hopes the NYSE would become the first foreign stock exchange to land in the Chinese mainland.

(China Daily November 30, 2006)