Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 6, 1993 TAG: 9310060328
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
The Germans were quite a presence outside the New York Stock Exchange as the giant Daimler-Benz AG celebrated listing of its shares on the Big Board, the first German company to so.
The main street outside the exchange was roped off for a display of Daimler-Benz products: a shiny fire engine, a helicopter and a sleek red Mercedes-Benz sedan - all on red carpets, of course.
White kiosks, topped with German and U.S. flags, provided passers-by with an introduction to the four main operating units of Daimler-Benz: Mercedes-Benz; Deutsche Aerospace; the electronics subsidiary, AEG; and the financial services unit, Debis.
German television crews were abundant. Even Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr. showed up for a breakfast with Daimler-Benz executives.
The street-fair setting capped a three-year effort by Daimler-Benz to have its shares listed on the NYSE. Company executives were jubilant to have finally tapped the U.S. capital markets.
Daimler-Benz expects U.S. investors eventually to hold about 10 percent of the company's capital, up from 3 percent now, said Daimler-Benz Chairman Edzard Reuter.
Daimler-Benz shares opened at $47 and closed at $46.75 in heavy trading.
U.S. investors are buying American depository receipts, or ADRs, which are issued by a U.S. bank and are traded like stock. The advantage of ADRs is they are in dollars, meaning U.S. investors don't have to worry about foreign currency fluctuations affecting their holdings, Long said.
For William H. Donaldson, the NYSE chairman, the Daimler-Benz listing signaled a victory in his efforts to expand the exchange's reach overseas.
"There has been a sea change in terms of interest on the part of the American investor in non-U.S. securities," he said.
by CNB