Market operator NYSE Euronext’s platform to promote European small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), EnterNext, may broaden its product offering as it expands across the region.
The marketplace is not itself a regulated exchange, but a market for bringing investors, corporates and SMEs together to facilitate trading on NYSE Euronext’s exchanges in Paris, Lisbon, Amsterdam and Belgium, and NYSE Alternext, a specialised exchange for SMEs.
EnterNext launched last week in Brussels and will open offices in four French cities in September alongside efforts to facilitate the financing and development of SMEs in the Netherlands and Portugal.
Eric Forest, CEO of EnterNext told theTRADEnews.com the platform has expanded its offering from equities to fixed income products in Brussels, and may expand to other asset classes if appropriate for SME financing.
“One of the core aims of EnterNext is to adapt existing products used by large cap companies for SMEs. This is what we’ve done with bonds and we will consider other products if we believe they are suitable to the SME market,” he said.
SMEs represent a major portion of Europe’s economy, and expanding the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) will be a key barometer of EnterNext’s success. Since 2008, the number of IPOs has decreased in Europe and the US, which Forest said he believed would begin to change in the coming years.
“Investors have cash to invest and they’re willing to look at new businesses and new ideas. We want to use this positive momentum to grow the number of IPOs and bring corporates and investors to the SME market,” he said.
As part of the Euronext section of NYSE Euronext, Forest said EnterNext would not be affected by the acquisition of the market operator by IntercontinentalExchange, which has stated it intends to sell off Euronext once the purchase is finalised.