Mr. Gerry Ritchie
BISX CEO
In April of this year, CEO Gerry Ritchie announced the launch of BISX’s primary and secondary listing of Bahamian regulated and overseas regulated mutual funds, sponsored by specialist members of the Exchange. At that time, he said, *”The use of sponsors is central to the development of a successful mutual fund listing facility. Sponsor firms, likely to be from the licensed mutual fund administrators, legal and accountancy professions, will be required to meet BISX eligibility requirements to enable them to act as sponsors to the listing of their mutual fund clients on the Exchange.”*
This past week, KPMG Corporate Finance was approved by the Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) as a sponsor for its mutual fund listing facility.
The listing facility is targeted at meeting the needs of international investors, who may require the extra visibility afforded by a listing on an established stock exchange as a basis for their choice of investment vehicle. BISX has been working closely with the Bahamian service providers in the mutual funds industry to align its facilities with their business development objectives. According to Mr. Ritchie, *”..the listing facility provides an additional element to their services offering in the growing and highly competitive offshore funds industry, and a spur to the ambitions of the Bahamian funds industry within that sector.”*
There is a substantial offshore funds industry based in The Bahamas, with some 600 mutual funds managing assets of $100 million.
Information on sponsor’s eligibility and application procedures may be accessed on the BISX website. Also available on the site are “A Users Guide to Listing a Mutual Fund on BISX” and “Listing Rules for Mutual Funds”
The mutual fund listing effectively launched BISX’s international tier. Its domestic equity market catering for the trading in Bahamian public companies was launched on 12 May 2000. Currently, 17 Bahamian issuers are listed on the domestic market representing a market capitalisation of over US$1.8 billon. BISX facilitates the trading of over 90% of the public trading of securities in The Bahamas.