Last month Conduit, the Dublin-based technology company, listed on the Neuer Markt in Frankfurt.

The company did not take a listing in Dublin. Managing director Mr Liam Young explained his strategy.

"We consider ourselves a European company and we see the Neuer as the leading European technology exchange. Less than 30 per cent of our business is in Ireland. We didn't consider Nasdaq because we don't have a lot of business in the US. We also see a lot of movement at the moment with mergers of exchanges and we feel the Neuer and the Deutsche Borse will be at the centre of whatever develops."

In addition, he said, there was the issue of stamp duty - investors who buy shares on the Dublin market pay 1 per cent duty, while there is no stamp duty on the Neuer Markt.

"It's not that there is big money involved but it is an irritation for European investors and makes it harder to get then to buy the shares." He saw very few disadvantages to listing on the Neuer. But he warned companies considering a listing to be careful about how they are categorised. "It is important to be in as many overlapping categories as possible. We are seen as an Irish company from the perspective of Irish investors, a Neuer Markt company by European investors and a European technology stock by US investors." A narrow categorisation would limit fund manager interest, he warned. On the costs of a Neuer flotation, he said it was "very cost effective. The hoops and regulations involved are less onerous than in Dublin or in London".

Conduit raised €51 million net and its flotation prospectus outlined costs - underwriting fees and expenses and "other expenses" - of €4.9 million or 9.5 per cent of the gross amount raised. But Mr Young said some of these fees were still under negotiation.

On a possible Dublin listing, Mr Young said Conduit would consider taking a secondary listing "as long as the rules don't tie us up in knots".

Set up in 1997, Conduit's core business is telephone directory assistance, operating call centres in Dublin and Vienna and directory assistance services in the UK, the Republic, Switzerland and Austria.

In the Republic it operates the 11850 directory assistance number. The company also provides enabling technologies to information service providers, specialising in the development of software providing value added services for mobile operators and information service providers and offering software for call centres, mobile messaging and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).