CROSS-LISTING TRENDS IN INDIA: A MULTI-PHASE ANALYSIS ACROSS SECTORS AND GLOBAL EXCHANGES

Abstract

In the 1990s, as India embarked on a path of economic liberalisation and globalisation, several Indian companies began cross-listing their shares on foreign stock exchanges. Cross-listing is an international growth and expansion strategy through which a company that is already listed on its domestic (home country) exchange decides to cross-list its shares on another foreign exchange to raise additional capital from overseas markets. Cross-listing offers several advantages to issuing companies, such as easy access to global markets, broadening the shareholder base, enhancing visibility and brand value, improving financial transparency and disclosures, etc. In this paper, an attempt is made to analyse the phase-wise evolution and trends of cross-listing in an Indian context. To identify the trend the companies were categorised using Sectors and Industry, Type of instrument, Depository Bank, and Stock Exchanges on which they were cross-listed. To meet these objectives, the researcher analysed 272 Indian companies that were cross-listed via issuing a total of 368 Depository Receipts (DRs) from 1992 to 2023. The study found that the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LUX) as well as the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in Europe and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in the United States as the popular destinations for cross-listing by Indian companies. The results exhibit that 73 per cent of the DRs were listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange because of less stringent listing regulations. Additionally, it was revealed that the Information Technology (IT) sector has issued the maximum number of DRs and the years 1994 and 2005 saw the maximum number of cross-listings. This study enhances our knowledge of cross-listing as a growth strategy and also provides valuable insights for small Indian businesses planning to get cross-listed on international exchanges.