Greek crisis hitting outlook for IPOs - Euronext Paris chief

By Alexandre Boksenbaum-Granier and Leigh Thomas Aix-en-Provence, France (Reuters) - Greece's debt crisis risks is clouding the outlook for stock market listings after a flurry of flotations in the first half of the year, the head of Paris' stock market Anthony Attia said in an interview on Friday. Though uncertainty over Greece has fuelled volatile trading, so far it has not hit initial public offers like investment fund Eurazeo's flotation last month of rental car company Europcar. "In terms of IPOs, we had a very good first half, but we are cautious about the second half due to consequences of the Greek crisis," Euronext Paris Chief Executive Anthony Attia told Reuters on the sidelines of an economic conference in Aix-en-Provence southern France. Euronext, the Paris bourse's parent company and the largest exchange in continental Europe for trading, competes with the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse for company listings. The exchange said eight new large-cap listings in the first half bolstered total capital raised on Euronext to 61.7 billion euros ($68.46 billion), compared with 57.8 billion euros a year earlier. Euronext reported on Friday its strongest six-month trading since 2011 as an uptick in volumes caused by economic uncertainty boosted performance. The exchange has benefited from U.S. investors piling into European shares, which have had cheaper valuations than U.S. stocks. Derivative trading has also been strong as investors hedged their positions on account of the volatility. Eager not to lose ground to bigger rivals, Euronext is making a push to become the European platform of choice for companies issuing of bonds in renminbi. "At Euronext, we have to pick our strategic priorities outside of Europe. The big challenge is to be the renminbi hub in Europe," Attia said. ($1 = 0.9013 euros) (Editing by Geert De Clercq)