* Large number of Russian, Indian firms planning London IPOs
* LSE looking to ease dual listing process with Toronto
* London looking to attract Mongolian firms to float
By Kylie MacLellan
LONDON, March 7 (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange is seeing companies queueing up to float and is looking at ways to widen the investor base open to them if it succeeds in its takeover of Toronto exchange owner TMX Group.
"Our pipeline is extremely strong," Tracey Pierce, director of equity primary markets at the London Stock Exchange Group told Reuters on Monday.
Global listings got off to a record start in 2011, boosted by buoyant stock markets and improved investor interest and despite some volatility due to unrest in North Africa and the Middle East, many firms are eager to test the market.
"The UK domestic pipeline is strong, and if you are looking at overseas markets I would say Russia and India have the largest number of pre-IPO companies considering London and preparing for a float."
While the firms looking to list in London come from a broad range of sectors, natural resources and infrastructure firms, particularly from emerging markets, are set to be the dominant source of issuance, Pierce added.
Natural resources listings, already a strength for the LSE, is an area of dominance likely to be cemented by its proposed acquisition of the owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange, announced last month.
Exchanges are scrambling to join forces in an effort to compete with lower-cost electronic trading platforms which have threatened their traditional dominance of key financial centres.
QUICKER, CHEAPER, SIMPLER
Pierce, a former banker with HSBC, said a combination of the London and Toronto exchanges could look to help companies float in both centres without having to go through the traditional dual listing process. "You could envisage ... in the future maybe having a co-listing option where we can facilitate a dual listing within the group on those two markets," she said during an interview in her glass fronted office at the group's London headquarters.
"Co-listing is on the basis of mutual recognition, so the regulatory models in each centre stay and the regulators stay but because they have got an agreement, a company could potentially come to market on one prospectus. It is quicker, cheaper and simpler."
Another advantage to issuers of the proposed London-Toronto link up is Canada's high concentration of retail investors, which would complement London's largely institutional investor base and give companies a broader investor base, she added.
The LSE is also looking to attract more Mongolian companies to list in London, through an agreement signed with the Mongolian stock exchange last month.
"We will be supporting their management team, we will be providing their technology for trading, market surveillance, post trade," said Pierce. "We will be introducing them to the London advisory and investment community and clearly we would like to facilitate dual listings, Mongolia and London."
The Mongolian government's up to $5 billion IPO of the Tavan Tolgoi coal field, the world's largest untapped coking coal deposit, is one of those London is looking to attract.
"Mongolia is extremely rich in natural resources and minerals and that is one of London's great strengths, expertise in the energy sector," Pierce said. (Editing by Alexander Smith)