The New York Stock Exchange has over 2,800 listed companies valued at an aggregate of nearly $15 trillion in global market capitalization. Its listed companies include General Electric Co., AT&T Corp., AOL Time Warner, Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor Co., McDonalds Corp. and Walt Disney Co.

The New York Stock Exchange imposes fairly stringent restrictions on the companies that wish to list their shares on the exchange. Some of the guidelines that the NYSE uses for an initial listing of a domestic company are national interest in the company and a minimum of 1.1 million shares publicly held among not fewer than 2,000 stockholders holding a minimum of 100 shares each. The publicly held common shares should have a minimum aggregate market value of $18 million. The company should have pre-tax net income in the latest year of over $2.5 million and $2 million in each of the preceding two years.

Foreign companies applying to list on the New York Stock Exchange must have at least 5,000 stockholders with at least 100 shares each and 2.5 million shares held by the public with a market value of at least $100 million. The company should have pre-tax net income in the latest year of over $100 million and $25 million in each of the preceding two years. It must also have a global market capitalization of $1 billion and annual revenue of $100 million.

A company also pays significant initial and annual fees to be listed on the NYSE. Initial fees are $36,800 plus a charge per million shares issued. Annual fees are also based on the number of shares issued, subject to a minimum of $150,000 and a maximum of $250,000.

For more information, visit the New York Stock Exchange’s website at www.nyse.com.