The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) yesterday said it was aiming to “achieve the same level of success as last year and then some” when it comes to attracting new fund listings in 2014.

Keith Davies, the exchange’s chief executive, told Tribune Business he was confident that increased interest in the benefits of a BISX listing would result in it gaining more than the seven investment funds it attracted in 2013.

And he also expressed optimism that BISX’s plans to launch a junior listings tier and Bahamian commercial paper market would “gain some traction” this year, pledging to complete all the necessary work to put these proposals before the exchange’s Board and regulators.

Suggesting that BISX’s promotional work before fund administrators and sponsors, and their clients, was starting to “pay off”, Mr Davies told Tribune Business: “This year we hope to achieve the same level of success and then some that we achieved in the course of the last several months.

“I think you could see a net increase in the number of funds on us, based on the interest we’ve been receiving and the questions we’ve been getting. We’ve targeted those people who are genuinely interested, and want to work with us.”

The seven listings gained in 2013 brought BISX’s total investment fund family to 24, and Mr Davies said his goal was to attract as many new ones as possible.

“We’ve been pretty quiet for a while, and I think the interest we’ve generated is going to materialise into quite a few new listings for us. That’s our plan,” he told Tribune Business.

“I’m always optimistic that if we do the necessary work, it will pay off in the end. I hope that we have more fund listings than last year.”

BISX, in particular, is seeking to target the Bahamas’ main fund growth area, the SMART funds, plus any type of investment fund domiciled in this nation - talking to their administrators, managers and sponsors to bring them on board.

Mr Davies, meanwhile, said BISX was now “rounding off” all the preparatory work on business development initiatives that it had brought forward from 2013.

Suggesting that this planning work would be completed by the first quarter’s end, he said BISX would seek to roll out long-heralded plans for a commercial paper market and listing facility for small/microcap companies from the second quarter onwards.

“Hopefully, this year we will see some traction on what we were talking about last year,” Mr Davies told Tribune Business.

“I would like to put them in a place where they are capable of moving forward. I want to put us in a position to do all these things. The final step is a Board decision and the Securities Commission. I’m going to do the work necessary to get us there and see what happens.”

If any of his plans came to fruition, Mr Davies said the benefit would be “more diversification, which leads to hopefully more interest by the investing public, increased awareness for savings by individual citizens.

“Subsequently, the market is in a more concentrated area, which brings greater transparency and confidence in what we’re doing on the ground here. It’s an improvement in the perceptions of the market, as well as its infrastructure. Hearts and minds.”

Mr Davies added that BISX would also adopt a more direct approach, rather than relying on Bahamian regulators and the Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB), when it came to marketing its products and services in Central and Latin America.

“We’re planning to do a direct approach to see how we make ourselves better known,” Mr Davies said.