The competition for initial public offerings in London has got more intense, with the first listing on a new rival to the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

In London on Thursday, the launch of NYSE Euronext’s first listing on its new platform – transport company Eurotunnel – coincided with well-publicized celebrations of Burberry’s 10-year anniversary of listing on the LSE at the latter exchange.

Eurotunnel , which operates the tunnel that links the UK to continental Europe through trains like the Eurostar, has cancelled its sterling listing on the LSE (its euro listing is in Paris) to move to the new platform.

Jacques Gounon, chief executive of Eurotunnel, told CNBC: “I think it will be much more simple. It will be only one share based in euro. We would like to give possibilities for investment funds based in London to have open and simple access to our shares.

“We believe that we can improve dividends in the future with this new platform. We are very proud to be the first. We want to be at the edge of technology.”

This is the first real competition for listings in London that the LSE has faced in more than three centuries of trading in some form. Of course, Euronext’s presence is much smaller than the LSE, which has close to 2,600 companies listed on the main market and the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

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