Harmos is a founding partner of Harmos Horton Lusk, an Auckland-based corporate law firm. His area of expertise is takeover advice and structuring, securities offerings, as well as company and asset acquisitions and sales. Before setting up his own firm, he was a partner at Russell McVeagh for 16 years.
The new chairman has identified three main economic challenges for New Zealand: to improve the country's international standing despite its small size; to maximise the participation of New Zealand investors; and to ensure the country has a vision against which relevant policy and decision making can be benchmarked.
ôNZX forms the core of our markets and sees its role as participating in the drive to ensure New Zealand enhances its competitiveness û and ultimately its relevance û in the global economy,ö he said in a written statement.
Size is certainly an issue for the tiny market. It has a market capitalisation of just NZ$57 billion ($38.1 billion), which compares with A$1.29 trillion ($1.05 trillion) for neighbouring Australia (based on July data). Made up of about 200 companies, the market is dominated by one company, Telecom Corporation of New Zealand, which accounts for around a third of the trading volume. And while there have been no listings of any size for some time, a few New Zealand companies have been acquired by foreign companies and subsequently delisted.
Year-to-date, the NZX50 Index is down 17.5%, having recovered some of the heavy losses it suffered in June and August.
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