BISX Lists Its First Secondary Issue

by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

11 June 2008

The Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) has announced that the Freeport Oil Holdings Company Limited (FOCOL) has successfully completed the listing process for its Class B Preference Shares, which are now listed on the Exchange under the symbol FCLB.

The Preference Shares have been added to the official roster of securities listed on the Exchange, and will trade through the BISX Automated Trading System. The total value of the listing will be BSD9,143,000, and arises from an offering conducted by FOCOL which ran from 15th-30th April, 2008.

BISX is now able to list the secondary issues of any BISX listed company, with the FOCOL Class B Shares becoming the first securities to take advantage of this new listing facility.

Secondary issues will include any securities issued by a listed company after their public offering, including corporate bonds, warrants and preference shares. The FOCOL Class B Preference Shares will trade over the Exchange, abiding by the same trading rules as FOCOL's ordinary shares.

Speaking with regard to the listing, BISX CEO, Keith Davies commented that:

"FOCOL was one of the original companies to list on BISX back in 2000, and it is fitting that they also took this significant step to become the first company to successfully pursue and achieve a secondary listing on the Exchange."

"We believe that this is another positive incremental step in the development of our capital markets and a great day for BISX. Now that we are able to list various secondary issues on the Exchange this will no doubt result in many benefits to the holders of these securities as well."

He went on to explain that: "We see three main benefits to the security holders of listed secondary issues, first there is increased transparency regarding transactions in the listed security, second there is price discovery resulting from the display of all pricing and trading information, and third there is the ability to independently value the securities once they are listed."

"We see a natural progression towards the listing of secondary issues on the Exchange, both from issuers seeking to attract new and institutional investors, and from investors seeking greater protection and transparency from the centralized trading platform offered by an organized Exchange."

The BISX CEO also indicated that he expected to list additional secondary issues from other companies in the near future.

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