TSE reveals name of new joint market with LSE as 'TOKYO AIM'+

TOKYO, Jan. 29 Kyodo - The Tokyo Stock Exchange announced Thursday that its planned joint stock market for emerging firms with the London Stock Exchange will be called ''TOKYO AIM.''

The new market, which will open around April for institutional and other
professional investors, has been given an English name to attract more firms
and investors at home and abroad, the TSE said.
The joint stock market will feature easier listing requirements to reduce
financial and other burdens on companies offering shares for trading.
The TOKYO AIM market will allow listed firms to disclose financial and other
information in English or Japanese, to use Japanese, international or U.S.
accounting standards and to skip quarterly earnings reports, the TSE said.
''The development of this new market structure in Tokyo is another step toward
the further strengthening of Japan's competitiveness in global capital
markets,'' TSE President Atsushi Saito said.
Clara Furse, chief executive of the London bourse, said the entity ''will
provide a suitable framework in which (firms) can develop long-term
relationships with professional investors, making it easier for them to gain
access to capital throughout their development.''
Saito said he would like to see dozens of companies listed on the new market in
four to five years.
The two bourses announced their plan to form the new stock market to help
emerging companies raise venture capital in a less severe regulatory
environment in October 2007.
The TOKYO AIM market will build on the LSE's success in developing a market
structure for smaller companies through its Alternative Investment Market.
The AIM, founded in 1995, is the LSE's submarket for smaller companies,
enabling them to raise capital under a more flexible regulatory system than
that applied to companies on the main market.
==Kyodo
2009-01-29 22:05:26