After attempts at diversifing, the stock-market operator NZX is promising to return to what it does best.
The timing of software company Xero’s departure from the New Zealand sharemarket couldn’t have been much worse for stock-exchange operator NZX. 2017 shaped up as the worst for new exchange listings since at least 2003.
Just one new company, aged-care operator Oceania Healthcare, came to market in 2017, listing on NZX’s main NZSX board. Meanwhile, the response to NZX’s low-cost, reduced-compliance NXT and NZAX markets has been so underwgelming it is rethinking them.