DUBAI, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- The President and CEO of U.S. stock exchange Nasdaq said here Monday at the 2018 World Government Summit that the benefits of a dual listing in the Middle East and a different time zone are "higher" in order to reach out to global investors.
Adena Friedman, who spoke on the second day of the ongoing summit which runs in its 6th edition, said "we do not comment on any specific listing plans, but in general it depends on the size of the going public and the size of the float whether a firm shall do a dual listing or not."
In line with the Saudi government's reform and privatization scheme Vision 2030, the Saudi government has said it aims to list up to 5 percent of oil and gas conglomerate Saudi Aramco in the second half of 2018 the earliest, at home and probably abroad, but no decision about the foreign market place for a dual listing has been taken as yet where to float the world's most valuable firm, estimated to be worth at least 2 trillion dollars.
Friedman explained "dual listing in the same time zone? That does not have a huge amount of benefit. I think any company you look at, you can support a dual listing in different time zones, as investors wake up in different parts of the world. It depends not only on the size of the company, but also on the size of the listing."
Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, is eight hours ahead of New York.
In an apparent sales pitch, Friedman said "we are home to some of the largest companies in the world, and we are extremely proud of that. Last year we had 50 billion dollars of listed firms that were switched from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq. And we are home of some of the biggest innovators of our time. The reason for that is because companies want to be part of the future."