The Irish Stock Exchange is set later to unveil a new market designed to attract small to medium-sized companies later this year - but it has no immediate plans to revamp its own quaint ownership structure.
The ISE, world leader in the listing of investment funds, boosted its own pre-tax profit by 40percent to a record Ђ6.9m in 2004. However, the fact that it is a company limited by guarantee rather than shares means that capital is retained in the business rather than distributed as dividends among the seven owners - all long-established Dublin stockbroking firms. Chief executive Tom Healy said the Dublin-based exchange had no plans to demutualise or change its status to that of a conventional company with shareholders.
