If successful, the LSE will follow in the footsteps of Deutsche Boerse AG which braved a rough initial public offering market in January, and Euronext NV, a full merger between the Paris, Amsterdam and Belgian stock exchanges, which is hoping to sell shares in June.

"A float is on our agenda this year," Ms Furse said after announcing a deal to sell technology to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. "We're hoping to get it done some time this year. The board will decide exactly the timing."And timing will be key as taking the exchange public may be no easy task, given current market conditions and negative sentiment toward new issues.

Investors have forced recent IPO candidates such as recruitment firm Michael Page PLC and Spanish airline Iberia to drastically reduce the prices they were seeking for their shares.

And even Deutsche Boerse, which managed to hold onto its valuation expectations and float at 335 euros ($294.60), has had a rough ride. Shares in the operator of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange have hit lows that were nearly 10 per cent off the issue price. Deutsche Boerse closed Monday at 316.50 euros, off nearly 6 per cent from the issue price.

But rocky markets are not the only obstacle with which Ms Furse will have to contend. Currently, LSE shares are traded informally through investment bank Cazenove, and no shareholder is allowed to own above 4.9 per cent of the company. For the LSE to list publicly, this rule would have to be changed, but members voted overwhelmingly last year in favour of keeping that limit. The rule limiting ownership has reduced liquidity in the shares and contributed to stability in their price. LSE shares closed Monday at 28.88 pounds ($40.97 or 46.60 euros), having first traded at 2,800 pence on July 24.

A stock exchange spokesman said the LSE has retained as advisers Schroders Salomon Smith Barney, a unit of Citigroup Inc, which has advised the LSE since it began the demutualisation process, through which it is changing from a membership organisation to a shareholding structure.

Moving the exchange's shares to the public markets isn't the only shift the exchange is planning. Ms Furse also said that after 200 years in the centre of London's financial district, the LSE would move out of its current headquarters by 2004. She said the exchange is looking at properties in Canary Wharf and Paternoster Square as alternative locations to the Stock Exchange Tower, where it has resided since 1972.

"We haven't decided we are going to Canary Wharf," Ms Furse said in response to a question about news reports to that effect. "Clearly the right business decision is to leave the Tower."

The exchange also thinks it makes sense to market its technology, as witnessed by the deal with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, that is valued at at least 11 million pounds over five years, but could be valued at more depending on the level of growth in that market.

Following similar moves to those of European competitors Euronext, which sells its technology to smaller exchanges such as Lisbon and Warsaw; and Deutsche Boerse, which operates the Helsinki, Dublin and Vienna exchanges in conjunction with its own, the LSE will operate the Johannesburg Stock Exchange's trading system.

-- The Wall Street Journal