PLUS says can dominate 75 pct of AIM firms in '08

LONDON (Reuters) - PLUS Market Group (PMK.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), a bourse focusing on smaller companies, could take up the majority of trading in at least 75 percent of AIM-listed companies once regulators open full access to the junior London market by the year-end, PLUS's CEO said.

London-based PLUS has so far signed up, by individual written consent, only 88 stocks out of about 1,750 listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), the junior board of the London Stock Exchange (LSE.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Britain's Treasury has indicated that it would like to remove outstanding obstacles to open competition in AIM trading, and PLUS expects this will happen before the end of the year.

"As soon as we sort this out, brokers can have their data 75 percent cheaper in some cases and they'll be able to do what they're supposed to do under MiFID, which is to get the best execution for their clients," Chief Executive Simon Brickles told the Reuters Exchanges and Trading Summit in London on Tuesday.

MiFID, or the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, was introduced in the European Union last November to tear down barriers to cross-border competition in share trading and lower prices for a more protected investor.

PLUS posted a loss of 2.98 million pounds ($5.85 million) in 2007 but expects to become profitable in 2009 -- if it is allowed to trade all AIM-listed securities by the end of this year.

It generated two-thirds of its revenues from listing fees, with the rest from selling market data, which it says is on average 75 percent cheaper than existing data offerings.

"Of the 88 (AIM) companies that we've signed up ... we have the majority of trading in 59-60," Brickles said.

($1=.5091 Pound)

(Reporting by Daisy Ku and Olesya Dmitracova, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)