The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) is exploring the creation of a Global Depository Receipt (GDR) that would allow international companies based in this nation to issue securities in any currency, its chief executive yesterday saying multi-million dollar investors had already expressed interest in the product.

Keith Davies told Tribune Business that the GDR would effectively be a spin-off of BISX’s existing Bahamian Depository Receipt (BDR) product, which enables Bahamian retail and institutional investors to purchase securities in Bahamas-based companies that have foreign exchanges as their primary listings.

But, while BDRs were intended to facilitate inward investment by Bahamians, Mr Davies said GDRs were intended to allow international companies to use this country as a platform for issuing securities/raising capital in the global markets.

“BDRs are designed for Bahamian inward investment,” Mr Davies told Tribune Business.

“We want to turn that around and make a GDR, so international companies here can issue a security that is denominated in any currency around the world.”

The BISX chief executive said the idea was raised , and discussed, at last week’s Bahamas International Investment and Business Forum in Grand Bahama. Most importantly, it appeared to gain some traction.

Disclosing that he spoke to the global heads of companies, and individuals responsible for $100 million worth of investment, Mr Davies said they delivered an encouraging message to proceed with the idea.

“They said: ‘If we could find the right product, and package it properly, there’s no reason why they would not be interested in doing business in the Bahamas’,” the BISX chief executive said.

“We want to turn that [the BDR] around and make it an international instrument for investment for companies doing business in the Bahamas.

“Right now, with the concept as talked about, we have to filter out the information and see if there is a demand. We know of businesses interested in doing it, and avenues available to us, and we will see where it takes us.”

Meanwhile, Mr Davies pledged that BISX would do a better job in educating Freeport/Grand Bahama residents on the capital markets, saying the exchange needed to “get off our butts” and disperse its message more widely.

Explaining that it aimed to match its educational efforts in Nassau, Mr Davies said: “We do a good job getting around here to the schools, and speaking about savings and investments, and the benefits of capital markets in the Bahamas.

“But we’ve not done that good a job in Freeport. We will partner with the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA), companies in Freeport to get people to understand what the capital markets have top offer.

“We need to start talking to these persons, finding avenues for expansion and growth. It’s time for us to get off our butts, distribute and disperse our message, and get to other islands.”