Kenya bourse delays regional trading integration

* $100 mln plan linking with Dar es Salaam, Kampala on hold

* Sees flotation of the exchange next year

By Duncan Miriri

NAIROBI, July 1 (Reuters) - Kenya's Nairobi Stock Exchange has postponed a plan for a common trading platform with Uganda and Tanzania because of the economic slowdown, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

The $100 million project would enable trade across all three exchanges in line with regional integration moves.

Like other stock markets across the world, Nairobi Stock Exchange has racked up losses in the wake of the global financial meltdown.

Its main index, the NSE-20 .NSE20, is down 9 percent this year. It sank lower in the first half but has rallied in the past few weeks.

"We don't think that both we and our partners are ready to make that investment," Peter Mwangi said.

"We have not abandoned the project we have just moved the timing of it."

Mwangi said he expects the upward trend to continue at the exchange, ranked third in sub-Saharan Africa by market capitalisation.

Athough it enjoyed unprecedented investor interest in the five-year period to mid last year, the bourse only expects one new company listing and some corporate bond issues this year, as companies shy from selling stocks in the face of the downturn.

He said the separation of the bourse's ownership and management in a process called demutualisation was still on course for completion before the end of 2009, followed by a listing of the shares during 2010. [ID:nLI48501]

This will also open the door for the exchange to tie up or acquire other firms in the region, he said. (Editing by David Clarke and David Cowell)