There were 502 new listings on the Channel Islands Securities Exchange (CISE) during 2016, an 18.7 per cent increase on the previous year, which took the total number of listings on the exchange to 2,272 at the end of December.
During 2016, the market capitalisation of all listed securities on the CISE increased by GBP36 billion (10 per cent) to reach GBP393 billion at the end of the year.
During the year, the CISE played a part in a world-first when Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund (GABI) was admitted to the Official List on 19 December and, in doing so, became the first regulated bitcoin fund to be listed on any exchange globally.
Other listings during the second half of the year have been led by a number of real estate investment trusts (REITs) and high yield bonds.
Fiona Le Poidevin (pictured), CEO of the CISE, says: “It’s great to see that we have built on our success in 2015 by substantially increasing new business again during 2016. What we have also seen is that the number of new listings has also increased markedly during the second half of the year, not least due to a number of REITs and high yield bonds choosing to list on the CISE.
“The resurgence of REITs reflects the growing interest seen in real estate in the months since the Brexit vote as international investors, including sovereign wealth funds, seek to take advantage of the ‘cheaper’ UK property market. Our regime has proved particularly attractive for REITs where there are a small number of significant institutional investors, although there has been a more recent trend towards the CISE also proving attractive to more widely held REITs wishing to trade on the Exchange and today more than a quarter of all UK REITs are listed on the CISE.
“In addition, we have seen a steady stream of high yield bond listings in the last few months following the introduction on 3 July 2016 of the EU’s Market Abuse Regulation (MAR). It applies to all securities listed on EU trading facilities but as it takes a blanket approach to all types of securities then it is disproportionately onerous for some products such as high yield bonds, which are held long term by sophisticated investors.
“The CISE is outside of the EU and therefore MAR does not apply to securities listed on our Exchange and we have maintained our robust market abuse rules which are applied proportionately to the type of listed product. This has created significant interest in the CISE as a listing venue for high yield bonds and in August IDH Finance plc (MyDentist) became the first for several years to list on the Exchange. As well as new high yield bond issues there have also been a number of ‘migrations’ from both Luxembourg and Ireland during the second half of the year and there are a number of further applications in the pipeline.”
Other highlights from last year included the exchange group’s parent company, The Channel Islands Securities Exchange Limited, being admitted to the Official List in June.
In addition, in September the rules for listing investment vehicles were modernised, in October the membership rules were amended to allow for listing sponsors to be based beyond just the Channel Islands and in November it was announced that the CISE had signed a cooperation agreement with the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX).
Le Poidevin adds: “2016 was an extremely successful year for the CISE, with a number of significant achievements of which our team should be very proud. I’d like to thank all our stakeholders for their continued support and I’m looking forward to working with them as we continue to develop the business during what will be a very exciting 2017.”
