The American Stock Exchange, with a freshly won marketing separation from Nasdaq, is wooing oil and gas-related companies to list with it. "It's a premier environment for all small- and midcap companies, oil and gas included," says Bob Rendine, Amex senior vice president, corporate communications. The Amex merged in November 1998 with the National Association of Securities Dealers Inc. (NASD), which owns and operates the Nasdaq system, and had shared some marketing functions until recently. Rendine says the Amex is a better-suited exchange for smaller stocks for several reasons. One is its floor-based, specialist structure, versus Nasdaq's floorless, electronic, marketmaker system. "The specialist structure limits volatility," he says. The New York Stock Exchange is a floor-based, specialist exchange as well, but a small stock's specialist may also handle more attention-getting listings, such as GE or Wal-Mart, he adds. The Amex is also offering investor-relations support to its customers. "The program provides assistance with everything from writing press releases to planning events, such as analyst conference calls." Clients' response to this particular program has been extremely favorable. For more information, contact Perry Peregoy, Amex senior vice president, equities, 212-306-1000. The exchange currently has several oil and related listings, from $100-million-market-cap E&P company <$iAbraxas Petroleum > (ABP), San Antonio, to $1.5-billion service company <$iUTI Energy > (UTI), for example. To increase its exposure to the oil industry's members, Amex is jointly sponsoring, with Amex-listed <$iDevon Energy Corp., > subscriptions to Oil and Gas Investor magazine for America's petroleum-engineering students and faculty. Peter Quick, Amex president, is familiar with their studies; he did post-graduate coursework in petroleum engineering at Stanford University. Houston-based E&P <$iContango Oil & Gas > (MCF), with a $70-million market cap, recently moved its listing to Amex, from Nasdaq's over-the-counter bulletin board, which is floorless. "I like an auction market," says Ken Peak, Contango chairman, president and chief executive officer. "I think it's more fair than an electronic market." With a stock price of about $6, approximately 10 million shares outstanding, and fewer than 50,000 shares traded many days, "we wouldn't have a prayer on the NYSE," Peak adds. So far, Contango has been extremely satisfied. Salvatore F. Sodano, Amex chairman and CEO, says, "Contango will benefit from our visibility and investor-relations programs, an integral part of the exchange's commitment to providing value-added, quality services that growing companies need to succeed." Amex, with about 750 equity listings and which had been losing market share to the NYSE and to Nasdaq during the past decade, mollified the leak last year. It gained 112 listings in 2000; its net loss was about zero. Nasdaq and the NYSE, meanwhile, experienced approximately 170- and 70-stock net losses, respectively, according to Rendine.
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