Hewlett-Packard Co has been talking about getting its shares listed on European stock exchanges for a couple of years now, and it is finally ready to take the plunge. It is applying for simultaneous listings for its common shares in the last week of April in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Zurich. It is already traded in Tokyo as well as New York. The company says it wants strengthen its relations with the City of London, which could well mean that local acquisitions are in the wind – the listings will of course be of the US company’s shares, not of the local subsidiaries, and is likely to be by introductions in which no new shares are issued.
