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On-line listing

TOKYO: Major Japanese brokerage Nikko Securities plans to list its shares for its on-line brokerage Nikko Beans Inc on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Mothers market by 2001, a Japanese financial daily reported on Sunday.

Nikko wants to use the capital from the listing on the venture-oriented Mothers market to help Nikko Beans develop its computer systems as well as expand the sources of its financial base, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported citing company sources.

It will take Nikko Securities about a year to prepare for the listing and the brokerage has not decided how many shares it plans to list, the paper said.

Nikko Beans was founded in May 1999 and is one of several new companies trying to establish itself in Japan's on-line trading market.

It started operations in October 1999 and has about 15,000 customer accounts. The company, which has Citigroup Inc C.N and Nippon Life Insurance Co as it major shareholders, also sells life and nonlife insurance policies, it said.

Nikko officials could not be reached for comment due to the weekend holiday.-Reuters