By Kirby Chien
BEIJING (Reuters) - Canada's biggest stock market operator, TSX Group Inc, said on Tuesday it was considering opening an office in China, its fastest growing source of new listings.
It would join a small group of global exchanges that have come to China, seeking to attract lucrative Chinese share offerings. The London Stock Exchange opened a Beijing office in January, following U.S. rivals the New York Stock Exchange, a unit of NYSE Euronext, and the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc
"It is on our radar screen," Richard Nadeau, vice president of the Toronto Stock Exchange, told Reuters on Tuesday in a telephone interview. The office would be its first outside of Canada.
While there are only 40 Chinese companies now listed on either of TSX's main or venture exchanges, out of some 3,800 in total, Nadeau expects the pace will quicken down the road.
"In five years, we could see 25-40 listings from China a year," he said while traveling in China to attract interest among Chinese firms. Last year seven Chinese companies issued shares on TSX's two exchanges.
The TSX is home to 60 percent of the world's listed mining companies and to 45 percent of globally listed energy firms, said Nadeau. "If you say we are the world's resource exchange, we could not deny it," he said.
TSX is eyeing small- and medium-sized Chinese companies that could get lost on the larger exchanges in the United States, he said. Chinese SMEs often complain of difficulties in getting funding back home, which is trying to slow investment and loans to cool inflationary pressures.
The TSX's main index has risen 6 percent this year to a record high on Monday, benefiting from soaring energy and raw material prices, making it a natural for firms from China, which is one of the world's largest consumers of energy and raw materials.
In contrast, the main Shanghai index has lost about a third of its value this year.
"Canadian investors are getting more and more comfortable with Chinese companies and appreciate the quality of Chinese companies coming to the market," he said.
Sino-Forest Corp is the largest Chinese company listed on TSX, with market capitalization of C$2.7 billion ($2.7 billion).
($=6.99 yuan=$1 Canadian)
(Reporting by Kirby Chien; Editing by Ken Wills)
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