ASX Should Get Green Light From Govt
ASX Should Get Green Light From Govt
An unnamed politician was quoted in the AFR this morning saying that it would be a ‘matter of concern’ if ASX merged with SGX because the electorate would need to be sure that Australian investors would not be worse off.
How can we be worse off than the current situation?
The ASX charges The Intelligent Investor $16,000 per year for ‘data fees’. We pay another company, Bourse Data, for the feeds but the ASX hits us with another $16,000 for the privilege of publishing their stock prices (20 minutes delayed mind you – if we want live data we would have to pay more).
How can it charge such a ridiculous amount for something which surely should be publicly available? Well, it is a rapacious monopoly protected by legislation.
The government should forget about all this national interest garbage and get on with introducing competition to the market. That would be something of real benefit to investors.
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I would have thought selling it wouldn't make a difference without the government changing legislation to force them to open up their data? Or if a new exchange opened?
I agree with Rowan. Ownership by Singapore is likely to raise your fees, not lower them. If Singapore Inc had a motto it would likely be "Never compete on price".
They apply this rule to almost all their ventures and the ASX will be no different. This is not intended as criticism of Singapore. It's intended as a reason not to be their customer if we can avoid it.
I also agree with the politicians instincts. Australia is in fierce competition with Singapore in attempting to remain/become an Asian financial centre. Handing them control of a major element in successfully pursuing that aim would be mad.
Optus and Singtel were not competitors but in finance Singapore is our major rival. The Treasurer should knock it back.
You've got to be kidding. Australia will never be an Asian financial services hub because we will never adopt a tax regime which can compete with Singapore or Hong Kong on a corporate or individual level and frankly why should we.
The likelihood is that if this proposal is knocked back on National interest grounds it will be seen as a further example of a country that does not really feel comfortable being part of and competing with other Asian countries. It will in fact make it even harder than it currently is to attract new listings to our market.
ASX is simply an efficient platform for attracting and pricing capital. How can this be anything other than enhanced by a merger with the SSX?
What is the obsession (or delusion) about being a regional hub?
The ASX exists to allow Australian companies to raise capital. With the rivers of gold flowing in from compulsory super in coming decades it will have no trouble doing this without the need to become a branch-office of the Singapore exchange.
This flurry from Canberra reminds me of the attitude of
the Government and public service in the days when we had exchange control. Australians couldn't survive in the real world without the government hoding your hand.
Paul Keating changed all that and look what has happened since. It speaks for itself.
The tax matters raised by Bill are not a factor. The benefits of HK and Sing tax regimes are already abvailable to Australian investors who need or want them.
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