The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) will next week issue proposed rules changes designed to “make it cheaper and easier” for companies to go public.

Keith Davies, the stock exchange’s chief executive, told Tribune Business yesterday that the alterations “should be out next week” through BISX’s website to kickstart a 30-day consultation process with listed issuers, broker/dealer members and the investing public.

While the proposed changes “are not sweeping”, Mr Davies said they will include a mixture of new proposals - combined with technical and structural alterations - that are designed to boost market transparency through better and more timely listed company disclosures, while also reducing the costs associated with being a public company.

The BISX chief executive also unveiled ambitions to take the exchange’s mutual/investment listings into the triple digits by year-end 2019, a goal it is only just short of, and “shoot for 100 or as many as we can get”.

Revealing that BISX had first planned to start consultation on the proposed amendments in February, Mr Davies told this newspaper: “We do have some new rule changes that we are going to be proposing.

“They’re not sweeping. Some of them are brand new in nature. Some are pretty technical; they are what I call in the weeds. Others are more structural, speaking to how things are processed through the exchange.”

The BISX chief executive added: “All proposed rule changes will be placed on the website to inform the public, members and listed issuers. They will be able to make comments, and fee changes - everything - will be included there. There will be a 30-day period for people to comment.

“What we want to encourage is that, what happens a lot of times, is you hear a complaint from third parties. We don’t have all the answers. We live in a stock exchange bubble. Persons outside the bubble have comments, concerns, and telling us will help us to do better. We want to here it.”

Mr Davies said the proposed BISX rules changes had resulted from “engagement” with the exchange’s members and listed issuers, and added: “We think some of these changes are timely and necessary to advance improvements in the market.

“One deal with how information is disclosed to the public. We want to improve the timeliness and content of that disclosure.” Holland Grant, BISX’s chief operating officer, said one of the proposals involved no longer requiring listed equity stocks to publish their quarterly and annual financials in the newspaper, instead employing electronic means to meet their filing and disclosure obligations to shareholders and the investing public.

“They go from trading rules changes to addressing very technical points when it comes to listing rules and technical obligations,” he told Tribune Business. “They’re about making it easier to be public and that’s where the focus is.”

Mr Davies added: “We’re still looking at other elements we want to update. Rules changes and comments are continuous. We’re always looking at the market to see whether we can improve and how we can reduce the time to market so companies can get information but not increase the cost of being public.

“Going public is not something someone does because it’s a good idea or it’s going to benefit you as the exchange. It’s going to benefit them because they can access capital cheaper by going public than by some other route. Companies have no obligation to go public. People need to remember that.”

Out of 140 total listed securities on BISX, around 89 are investment funds, and Mr Davies expressed the stock exchange’s ambition to break through the three-figure barrier by end-2019.

“I want over 100. That is or goal,” he told Tribune Business. “We’re going to shoot for the number of 100-plus. That does not mean we will settle for 100. If we can get 100, 200 more we will go for it. We are definitely pushing to stimulate listing activity.”