Two more companies just said goodbye to Nasdaq. CECO Environmental and International Bancshares (IBC) will both make the Dallas-based Texas Stock Exchange their primary home. This Texas Stock Exchange listing shift keeps picking up speed.
Here’s the plan, per the companies’ own filings. Both stocks were set to stop trading on Nasdaq at the close on Friday, Oct. 16. They would then open on the TXSE on Monday, Oct. 19.
Who is making the Texas stock market move?
CECO Environmental is based in Addison, Texas. Its board approved a voluntary transfer of its primary listing from the Nasdaq Global Select Market, according to its filing with the SEC. It calls itself the first multi-industrial business to make the jump.
International Bancshares, based in Laredo, trades as IBOC. It runs five subsidiary banks with 165 facilities across Texas and Oklahoma, Investing.com reported. It announced its move on Oct. 6, per its own release.
IBC’s move matters beyond its roughly $17 billion in assets. A regional bank that size is the kind of established institution that gives the TXSE real weight. It follows Texas Capital’s switch, and it suggests big banks may follow.
What changes for shareholders after the TXSE listing?
Almost nothing, and that’s the point. CECO keeps its ticker and its CUSIP, so shareholders don’t need to do a thing. Likewise, IBC says it will keep trading as IBOC. Your shares, your brokerage account and your dividends stay put.
The CEOs, naturally, are selling this as a bigger deal than a ticker swap. “By becoming the first multi-industrial company to transfer its primary listing to the Texas Stock Exchange, we are aligning with a well-capitalized, leading technology platform,” CECO chairman and CEO Todd Gleason said.
Why the Nasdaq exit is becoming a Texas habit
This isn’t a one-off. The TXSE only began trading in July, and it is openly trying to pry primary listings away from the NYSE and Nasdaq. D CEO Magazine’s tracker shows the list growing fast. For a closer look at the numbers, see how the exchange lined up nearly $100 billion in first corporate listings.
Texas Capital Bancshares moved from Nasdaq and began trading on the TXSE on Oct. 8. Our earlier story covers how the first big bank brought its listing home. Dillard’s announced a switch from the NYSE, effective Oct. 5. Energy Transfer and three related companies have also said they’re heading to Dallas.
Charles Schwab, for its part, started a secondary listing there on Oct. 7 while keeping its NYSE primary.
The older exchanges aren’t sitting still, either. NYSE and Nasdaq have both set up Texas operations of their own and signed dozens of dual listings. So the real fight is over who gets to call itself home base for the Lone Star business crowd.
What to watch next
A listing venue matters more to the company and the exchanges than to the average investor holding a few shares. Meanwhile, Wall Street is busy reshaping trading hours too, as 23-hour trading heads to the market.
IBC has a closing-bell ceremony planned in Houston on Dec. 7 to mark the transfer. By then, the bigger question will be whether the TXSE can turn a handful of loyal Texans into a real rival for Wall Street, or whether this stays a very Texas victory lap.
Either way, Nasdaq is about to lose two more Texans, and it probably isn’t done losing them.
