Bitcoin debut boosts Securities Exchange

Wednesday 11 January 2017

A bitcoin investment fund has helped boost the Channel Islands Securities Exchange to fresh heights.

There were 502 new listings on the exchange last year. It's an 18.7% increase on the previous year and 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 £36 billion (10%) to reach £393 billion at the end of the year.

The Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund plc (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.  

Fiona Le Poidevin, CEO of the CISE, said: “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."