Brussels officials went on a study trip to Stockholm, because the stock exchange there runs against the current in Europe.
Ericsson pole Nokia in the operator race in the USA, Sweden’s government debt ratio is about half of Finland’s and so on.
But that’s not all. Now the authoritative financial publication Financial Times tells, how EU officials went on a study trip to Stockholm a year ago. The agenda was to find out why the stock exchange Nasdaq Stockholm is in such high demand.
Over the course of two hours, the management of the Stockholm Stock Exchange presented the local capital market ecosystem: for example, how so many small and medium-sized companies have decided to list on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
At the same time, many other European countries, including the financial center London, are struggling with low IPOs and withering trading.
“Sweden currently has the most active capital market in Europe,” says the think tank New Financialin founder William Wright Financial Timesille.
According to him, Sweden has realized how important it is that the entire stock market ecosystem works well. Even foreign companies are eager to list in Stockholm.
According to FT, the authorities in Europe are urgently trying to stimulate the stock market by changing listing regulations and encouraging pension and real estate funds to invest in domestic stocks.
In Sweden, these incentives have been in place for some time, and the results speak for themselves: In the past eleven years, no fewer than 501 companies have been listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, which is more than in France, Germany, Holland and Spain combined. Of course, there have been more IPOs in Great Britain than in Sweden, i.e. 765.
Helsinki is on a Mickey Mouse level compared to Stockholm. Only three IPOs took place in Finland last year, when the financial house Command and supplier of environmental solutions Lamor came to the main list. Firsta, on the other hand, entered the North list Ostrobothnia Arvo Investment Cooperative.
Since 2014, 94 companies have been listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.
According to FT, Swedish pension funds have long emphasized domestic shares and even increased the share of domestic shares in their holdings.
In Britain, the direction has been different. According to FT, the share of domestic shareholdings in pension funds there has dropped to four percent. Also in Finland, the trend of pension companies has been that the weight of domestic investments in the portfolio is weakening. However, it is also due to the slow price development of domestic shares.
In Sweden, pension funds also play a significant role in listing.