Apr 12 2024, 08:50
Dimon says US stock exchanges have too few companies;India has a different problem:
Jamie Dimon, the head of JP Morgan, is worried that the public companies' universe is shrinking in the US stock markets. While India takes lots of its cues from the US. this is one place where walking in the opposite direction may be a better idea.
More is less or less is more? The answer is, as former US President Bill Clinton once said: "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."
In this case, "is" refers to the quantity of stocks listed on the stock exchanges.
Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO, JP Morgan Chase & Co, lamented in his latest (April 8, 2024) annual letter to the shareholders that public markets are shrinking in the US, as the total number of listed companies are down to 4,300 now from their peak of 7,300 in 1996.
He says intensified reporting requirements, higher litigation expenses, costly regulations, cookie-cutter board governance, shareholder activism, undue influence of proxy advisors and relentless pressure of quarterly earnings are probably among the reasons for companies choosing to go private.
Dimon has a point. A growing economy (US is growing at 3.5% p.a., amazing for its size) should provide quality companies from good entrepreneurs on the public markets. That was the wealth-creation spreads to other sections of the society from a humble government employee to a young software engineer.
Now India is as entrepreneurial as any other economy in the world and tables have turned here.
In the booming Indian equity markets, however, public markets have taken center stage. NSE data shows the number of total public-listed companies rising to 2,255 in March 2024 from 1,605 in January 2019, as per the latest available data. There were 2,085 companies with market capitalisation above INR50 crore in March 2024, compared to 1,947 in January 2019, NSE data shows. The data does not include companies that are not traded suspended from the exchange.
source:et
Apr 12 2024, 09:35