James Lee is preparing to launch a Texas stock exchange after raising about $120 million from investors and big firms including BlackRock and Citadel Securities.
DALLAS — The dream of a national stock exchange headquartered in Dallas is gaining momentum.
Texas entrepreneur James Lee is preparing to launch a Texas stock exchange as CEO after raising about $120 million from private investors and big names like BlackRock Inc. and Citadel Securities Inc.
“We are excited to realize our long-held vision of establishing a national stock exchange in Texas,” Lee said. “Texas and other southeastern states have become economic powerhouses, and given the growing demand from investors and businesses for greater alternatives to trading and listing stocks, this is a great opportunity to establish a large-scale national stock exchange in Texas.”
The Texas Stock Exchange plans to apply for registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission later this year to operate as a fully electronic national securities exchange.
It’s unclear where the Texas Stock Exchange’s Dallas headquarters will be located.
The Texas Stock Exchange provides a venue for trading and listing of public companies and exchange-traded products, particularly in the southeastern region of the United States.
The Texas Stock Exchange will focus on attracting companies from the southeastern United States, including Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, to the exchange.
“Changes in the equity trading market are driving increased trading volumes on the exchange and greater choice for issuers and sponsors,” said James Lee, founder and CEO of TXSE Group Inc. “TXSE will ultimately drive competition in market activity, liquidity and transparency, resulting in a more consistent and reliable marketplace that benefits investors, global issuers and liquidity providers alike.”
Officials, including Houston-based Lee and Dallas-based law firm Haynes Boone, which is helping to set up the Texas Stock Exchange, believe the state is an ideal location for a new national exchange. Texas is home to more than 5,200 private-equity-backed companies, many of which are preparing to enter the public stock market, and the region already has more than 1,500 publicly traded companies.
Glenn Harner, president and CEO of the Texas Business Association, said the state’s chamber of commerce “fully supports this important effort to make Texas home to the nation’s newest securities exchange through the creation of the Texas Stock Exchange.”
“Texas is already the ‘headquarters of headquarters,’ home to 52 Fortune 500 companies and is an ideal location for the nation’s newest stock exchange to rival the current NYSE and Nasdaq duopoly,” Harner said. “CEOs have consistently named Texas the best state for business for the past 20 years, and site selectors have consistently chosen Texas as the best state for new capital investment projects for 12 years.”
