KARACHI, Sept 19: The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is interested in listing some of the promising Pakistani companies on its bourse, Mr Hugh Sandeman, the visiting senior manager Business Development of Europe’s biggest equity market told Dawn on Tuesday.

He said that a two-member team from LSE was in the country for a week to meet leading Pakistani companies and securities firms in order to explore the possibilities of seeking listing of target companies overseas, specifically on the LSE.

Mr. Sandeman said that London believed that Pakistan had a transparent regulatory system, a liberal foreign exchange regime and it was on the road to good corporate governance. He also thought that the country was displaying strong economic growth and high corporate earnings.

In reply to a query, the London bourse senior manager stated that companies from 27 different countries were currently traded on the LSE. He would not comment on upcoming listing of Pakistan’s Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) Global Depository Receipts (GDR) on the LSE, but mentioned that around 50 Indian companies were either listed or indirectly traded on the London equities market. These included eight companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market (Aim).

Mr. Sandeman said that he specialised in capital markets in the sub-continent and it was his fifth visit to Pakistan this year. London, he said, did not wish to focus on any particular area but explores high growth, high-yield companies in all areas that might be of interest to foreign investors trading on the London Stock Exchange.

He brushed aside any political risks in investing in Pakistani companies, which, he said, anyway had to be weight against benefits, which ‘looked great’. He also thought that it was a grand opportunity for Pakistani companies to raise capital from the overseas bourses.

The Privatisation Commission (PC) is already on the way to offering equity in OGDC through GDRs on the London Stock Exchange. The government believes that the launching of GDRs on foreign bourses would help in generating foreign exchange and also promote the local companies in international markets.

Meanwhile, as many as 20 Pakistani corporates could seek listing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following signing of cross-border listing by the two governments.

A team of Pakistan’s corporate and securities representatives headed by the country’s custodian of securities — the Central Depository Company (CDC) — is currently on a visit to the UAE where it hopes to create awareness about Pakistan’s capital markets.

The CDC held a road show in Abu Dhabi on Monday and plans to hold another in Dubai on Wednesday, Sept 20.