How European companies are listed on US stock exchanges and so must
comply with the US Sarbanes-Oxley act of 2002?

timstammers --

As of late January 2004, there were "approximately 300 companies
headquartered in EU countries that are listed on U.S. exchanges,"
according to SEC Chairman William Donaldson.  Here is a link to the
text of a speech in which he made this statement, which discusses the
Sarbanes-Oxley compliance issue in detail:

U.S. Mission to the EU: Speech by William Doanldson
http://www.useu.be/Categories/CorporateGovernance/Jan2604DonaldsonSpeechEPC.html


Search Strategy:

The following Google search led to the information:

eu OR "european union" companies "listed on us stock exchanges"
://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&c2coff=1&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2004-01%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=eu+OR+%22european+union%22+companies%22+listed+on+us+stock+exchanges%22

I also conducted various other searches to confirm that the
information was accurate and complete.

I am happy to be able to give you a prompt response.  If anything is
unclear, please ask for clarification before rating the answer.


markj-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by timstammers-ga on 03 May 2005 07:00 PDT

Thanks. I did same search, missed it.

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Clarification of Answer by markj-ga on 03 May 2005 09:22 PDT

timstammers --

Thanks for the five stars and the tip.  Glad to be of help.

markj-ga

Actually, companies subject to the Sarbanes Oxley Act are those
registered with the SEC, not just those which are listed on a US Stock
Exchange (a subtle distinction, but which can be important).

A summary of companies registered with the SEC by country can be found
at http://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/internatl/companysummary.htm.

A quick calculation shows that as of Dec 31, 2003 there were 296 EU
companies registered with the SEC, and so subject to Sarbanes Oxley,
in 17 countries.

To see how many EU companies are actually listed in the US, go to
http://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/internatl/marketsummary.htm