The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) yesterday predicted that 2015 will be its “best year ever” for new listings, having taken less than four months to match last year’s total.

Keith Davies, BISX’s chief executive, told Tribune Business that the increased listing activity showed the exchange had “established ourselves as the destination of choice” for Bahamas-based public securities issuers.

He said BISX had attracted 12 new listings for 2015 to-date, broken down evenly into six investment funds and six preference share classes, a total that matched 2014’s full-year activity.

And with several further listings in the pipeline, including the two preference share classes created by Cable Bahamas’ recent $73 million issue, BISX appears poised to beat its full-year record of 13 new listings.

That was set in 2000, the year the exchange was created, and Mr Davies suggested BISX’s listing expansion was a reflection of growth in the wider Bahamian capital markets.

“We’re pretty busy on the listings side. We are continuing to attract persons to the market. It’s already April and we’ve matched our total listings for the previous year,” Mr Davies told Tribune Business.

“We did a total of 12 listings last year. For this year, we already have a total of 12. The expectation is that before the end of the month [May], we will have surpassed last year’s total.

“The most listings we have had was 13 in 2000, our first year, when we started, so 2015 is shaping up to be the best year, and 2014 was not a bad year either.”

Commonwealth Bank’s six preference share classes are the exchange’s latest listings, following closely behind several RoyalFidelity investment funds.

While unwilling to predict how many new listings BISX was likely to attract for the 2015 full year, Mr Davies told Tribune Business: “Right now, we’re at 12, and I would hope that we do better than last year, which we know we will.

“We hope that number goes as high as possible. If it’s 20-plus, that would be fantastic.”

Apart from companies seeing increased value in listing on BISX, Mr Davies said the listings growth also showed how investors were placing greater trust and credibility in securities that were publicly listed, and the higher transparency standards they must adhere to.

“It’s really indicative of the fact that the market is cementing itself, and people are increasingly relying on the exchange to be that impartial market where they can consistently get the kind of information they depend on,” he added.

“The fact we’re having this level of success now was all part of the plan in 2000 when we launched this market.

“We have now established ourselves as the destination of choice if you’re going to do business in the public domain in securities.”

Mr Davies implied that companies which had issued securities to the Bahamian public, but not listed them on BISX, lacked the credibility of those that had done so.

He described such ‘non-listers’ as “not real as far as I am concerned”.

“People are beginning to see the value of having their company associated with the exchange,” Mr Davies said. “There’s value in that, good business in that.

“What we are beginning to see is that there is a higher level of credibility with the information they’re putting out.”

The BISX chief executive said investor perceptions and feelings about a company, and its securities, were as important as “reality”.

He suggested that a BISX listing was key for this reason, as the transparency and information that public companies were required to release helped to foster greater investor trust.

“I think the underlying basis is credibility and trust,” Mr Davies said in reference to some of the benefits of a BISX listing. “If you are in the public domain, but not on BISX, you are not real as far as I am concerned.

“We tend to serve as the sensible, independent referee of the market. The exchange is not always the barometer of the economy, but what is beginning to happen is that companies, which have been planning to do something for the past two years, are now taking proactive steps to get there and make themselves known.”

Mr Davies emphasised that a BISX listing was choice to be made the issuing company, with the exchange just setting the rules and the process for achieving this.

“I’m not going to stop creating that level of credibility,” he added. “It’s going to get better and better. This is more positive, small, incremental steps. The market is about a marathon, not a sprint.”