Big Board, Nasdaq slug it out for rapidly growing Southland firms.

For Los Angeles area growth companies, the Nasdaq stock market is increasingly the market of choice, with several local firms vowing to remain there rather than one day move to New York's Big Board.

An estimated 110 local companies are currently listed on Nasdaq -- the so-called over-the-counter market -- while the New York Stock Exchange lists 42 L.A.-area companies. The American Stock Exchange, with a total of only about 900 companies listed, has roughly 40 L.A.-area companies.

The competition among stock exchanges is heating up, especially between Nasdaq and NYSE, both of which have advertising campaigns. However, the American exchange is not to be left out.

"California is an extremely fertile market for public listings, and the Amex has in fact identified hundreds of prospect companies," said American spokesman Paul Nobile. "We will be focusing on Southern California as a primary marketing target for the exchange."

While the Big Board may have fewer local companies listed than Nasdaq, it includes the 20 largest public companies in L.A. County, including such heavy hitters as Atlantic Richfield Co., Unocal Corp. and Lockheed Corp.

Even so, officials at several local companies listed on Nasdaq said they are content and, even if they meet certain financial qualifications, such as specific asset size and number of shares outstanding, do not aspire to be listed on the New York exchange. Some said the listing does not bring the prestige it once did.

"I remember way back when I was with National Medical Enterprises, it was an achievement for your company to make the various hurdles to get on the Big Board," said Dean Staley, chief financial officer for Burbank-based Summit Health Ltd. "Now, it's not such an achievement. It's not a real target for your company any more."

Staley cited the additional expenses involved with going on the Big Board -- the basic fee is $36,800 compared to Nasdaq's $5,000 fee -- and noted that many local newspapers now include Nasdaq listings.

H.B. Richman, vice president with L.A.-based Viking Office Products Inc., said it would be very unlikely for his company to move from Nasdaq to the New York exchange.

"It really isn't for us," he said. "At one time it added prestige to the company, but it doesn't seem to any more."

Richman predicted Viking will report $450 million in revenues when its fiscal year ends June 30. Its stock is trading at about $25 per share.

"We find that Nasdaq is a good exchange for us, we don't think it's less prestigious," said Richman. "Nasdaq is the darling of the investment managers right now."

Indeed, a broad stock market rally and continuing investor interest in small companies pushed the Nasdaq Composite Index to a record high in late January.

Calabasas-based Cheesecake Factory Inc., which went public last September, does not aspire to one day move to the New York exchange, said Chief Financial Officer William Kling. "We think we're getting good exposure and very good trading activity," on the Nasdaq, he said. Cheesecake's stock traded at $23.50 a share Jan. 27.

"Nasdaq has been much more responsive in terms of what the market's really doing," Kling added.

Nasdaq, short for the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations System, is a computerized market system that provides brokers and dealers with price quotations for securities traded over-the-counter. Founded in 1971, it is operated by the National Association of Securities Dealers.

Jim Spellman, a spokesman for Nasdaq, said it lists the "blue chips of the 1990s," and touted Nasdaq as the market of the future. He noted large companies which could move to the Big Board, such as Microsoft Corp. and Apple Computer, are staying with Nasdaq.

"They are technology companies, they think in terms of the future and computer technology," said Spellman, noting that Nasdaq is a computer based market.

Founded in 1792, the New York Stock Exchange is the oldest in the country and the largest in the world. Located at 11 Wall St., it operates an auction market which trades shares of 2,089 listed companies.

Stock transactions can occur in many ways. On the floor of the exchange a broker can take a buy or sell order by phone or computer and deliver the order to a floor specialist.

New York's Big Board dwarfs Nasdaq in market value with an estimated $4 trillion, compared to Nasdaq's $615 billion.

Ray Pellecchia, a spokesman for the New York Stock Exchange, said the market includes "the vast majority of companies," an estimated 85 percent of the total value of all the public companies in the U.S.

"Most companies who do qualify are here. There are exceptions, such as Microsoft and Apple, and you may indeed have some in your backyard," he said.

However, Pellecchia said, by and large most companies do move to the New York exchange, an estimated 45 per year. "I think the prestige factor is one we still have," he said.

Mary Meusborn, spokeswoman for Chatsworth-based Syncor International Corp. said her company is "content" being on Nasdaq and has no plans to move to the New York exchange.

Likewise, Century City-based Argonaut Group has no plans for switching to NYSE. The fees on Nasdaq are lower than on the New York exchange and there is "no reason to change," said Jim Halliday, vice president, secretary and treasurer.

To qualify for the NYSE, a company must show more fiscal muscle than required for Nasdaq and must pay more for the basic entry fee. For the NYSE a firm must show: market value of publicly held shares of at least $18 million; demonstrated earning power the previous year of $2.5 million before federal income tax and net tangible assets of $18 million. The listing fee for the NYSE is $36,800 and there are additional fees based on per million shares of stock traded.

In contrast, the entry fee for Nasdaq is $5,000, with additional fees per million shares.

To become listed on the Nasdaq, a company must have only $4 million in net tangible assets and a pre-tax income of $750,000, in addition to numerous other requirements.

Robert Perry, chief financial officer for L.A.-based Dames & Moore, an environmental engineering firm, said he felt the added costs of NYSE were well worth it.

The company completed an initial public offering last year and was listed on Nasdaq for about a month before switching to the Big Board, he said.

"Because of our greater size, we wanted to differentiate ourselves from our competitors," Perry said. "Most of our clientele are Fortune 500 companies and we wanted to be in the same environment as our clients. We wanted to be a major player."

The competition is heating up between the giant NYSE and so-called upstarts, such as Nasdaq and various regional exchanges, including the 10-month-old Arizona Stock Exchange.

Pellecchia said the NYSE has a print and broadcast campaign underway, which includes full-page advertisements in the Wall Street Journal. The campaign is to educate investors about how the New York market works.

"There is increased competition now," between exchanges, said Pellecchia.