Kuwait considers new trading system

The Kuwait Stock Exchange is considering buying a trading platform from a European bourse as part of plans to make the market more attractive to foreign investors, people familiar with the matter said.

The second-largest Arab bourse is looking at trading systems from Frankfurt bourse operator Deutsche Boerse, transatlantic firm NYSE Euronext, and Nordic operator OMX, said the people.

Kuwait, the Middle East's fourth-largest oil exporter, wants to emulate some of the success Gulf Arab neighbours such as Dubai have had in diversifying their economies from oil, and attracting international investors and financial institutions.

US consultancy McKinsey & Co, which has been commissioned to review the Kuwait bourse's performance, has made proposals ranging from overhauling the trading and administrative system, to turning the institution into a private company, the people said.

"Another proposal is to expand and focus on futures and derivatives trading," one of the people said.

Kuwaiti bourse officials recently visited Deutsche Boerse in Frankfurt and NYSE Euronext in Paris.

"It is in a very early stage ... they're just looking at different systems," one person said. Any order would not come until next year and a system not installed until 2009, he said.

The Kuwait bourse' technical committee is expected to review the proposals next month before making recommendations to the board.

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