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Sarbox ‘no longer makes sense from a cost and administrative perspective’ says chemical giant’s CFO as ICI prepares to leave New York Stock Exchange.

ICI is gearing up to leave the New York Stock Exchange to free itself from the blight of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

The company predicted a £4m annual saving from the de-listing based on the costs ‘incurred using external suppliers and auditors to provide ongoing support to the company’s Sarbanes-Oxley compliance’.

Alan J Brown, ICI’s CFO said: ‘ICI will continue to comply with the Combined Code on Corporate Governance and the UK Listing Authority listing rules and maintain quarterly reporting. However, it no longer makes sense from a cost and administrative perspective to submit to the reporting obligations under the Exchange Act.

AccountancyAge: £4m-a-year Sarbox millstone forces ICI to abandon US listing

Adecco, the world’s biggest temporary employment group, on Wednesday became the latest European company to seek a delisting from the New York Stock Exchange because of limited trading volumes and high costs.

However, the decision is particularly piquant for Adecco, which became the first big European group to fall foul of the intricacies of the US Sarbanes-Oxley legislation in 2004.

Adecco was forced to repeatedly postpone reporting its earnings after the discovery of irregularities in parts of its North American business.

The investigation resulted in the discovery of only minor procedural irregularities, but led to costs of almost €100m for legal, accounting and public relations services – and ultimately led to the departure of John Bowmer as chairman.

msnbc: Adecco to seek NYSE delisting

Attempts to overturn portions of Sarbanes-Oxley may pick up steam this week after an April 4 report showed the value of European stock markets has overtaken U.S. markets for the first time since World War I.

The seismic shift in the value of equity markets is a further blow to the New York Stock Exchange and other U.S. markets, which have seen some of the larger initial public offerings opt for overseas markets instead of their traditional NYSE home.

Critics of SarbOx blame the recent regulation for pushing the IPOs abroad. They claim the legislation makes compliance in the U.S. too costly.

A vast transatlantic stock market emerged on Tuesday when the New York Stock Exchange won control of pan-European market operator Euronext, creating an entity worth 29 billion dollars linking trading platforms in six cities.

The two markets said in a statement that the NYSE had acquired 91.42 percent of Euronext capital and 92.22 percent of the voting rights according to a provisional tally of shareholder acceptances.

The new leviathan, creating the first inter-continental stock market capitalised at about 22 billion euros, will bring markets in New York, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Lisbon under one group and will also include the Liffe financial futures market in London.

A vital point is that companies quoted on each market will continue to operate under existing regulations. European companies will not be affected by severe accounting rules, as stipulated by the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, which are much criticised in the United States for increasing costs on quoted comapnies.

Yahoo: NYSE buys Euronext, forming first inter-continental stock market

The Asia Tigers Fund, Inc. (NYSE: GRR; the “Fund”) reports to stockholders that its Chief Executive Officer has submitted to the New York Stock Exchange his required annual certification for 2006 and that the Fund has included the certifications of its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Compliance Officer, as required by Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, in the Fund’s Form N-CSR containing the Fund’s annual report for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2006, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 29, 2006. Although the Fund’s annual report did not include this information, these certifications were appropriately filed as required.

Yahoo: Asia Tigers Fund NYSE Certification