The Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) announced today that the Government of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas has successfully completed the listing process for all of the Notes that comprise Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 of Bahamas Government Stock. The Notes have been added to the roster of securities listed on the Exchange and each Note will trade separately and independently on the Exchange under its own symbol through the BISX Automated Trading System (BATS).
These Notes, issued under the Bahamas Government Stock (BGS) facility that commenced fundraising in December 2014, are the first instruments of the Government to be listed and traded over the Exchange. The BGS Facility allows for the issuance of securities that can be immediately listed and traded over the Exchange.
BISX Chairman Andrew Strachan commented on the listing of these BGS Notes: "This is a very positive move on the part of the Government of The Bahamas and we are grateful for their support of BISX. The listing of Government securities is another milestone achieved in our development."
Keith Davies, the BISX Chief Executive added: “The listing and trading of Government securities has been a goal of the Exchange from our inception in 1999. I’ve worked closely with Government and other market participants on this issue for quite a while; therefore, this is a significant event in the growth and development not just of BISX, but for the entire Bahamian capital markets.” Mr. Davies further noted that the listing and trading of fixed rate Government securities within the formalized electronic market environment allows for the establishment of a Yield Curve that will ultimately allow the further expansion and development of the corporate and institutional debt markets in The Bahamas. “I have received very positive feedback from the market in this regard already,” he said. “Additionally the secondary trading of these instruments will provide investors with valuable real time information regarding the risk appetite of the Bahamian capital markets and expand the diversity of securities in our market. Of course, we look forward to the day when all outstanding Government Debt is listed on the Exchange, but suffice it to say, today we have experienced another positive incremental step in the development of BISX and the BISX Market.”
Mr. Holland Grant, BISX Acting Chief Operating Officer explained the naming convention used by BISX to differentiate the symbols of the various notes. “Our purpose in the symbol naming convention was to create a simple and unambiguous means that can be used repeatedly for different notes and tranches.” Mr. Grant went on to say: “Each security listed on BISX is given a unique symbol for ease of identification. For BGS each security is identified by a 6 character symbol intended to uniquely identify that security.”
For example, a BGS Note with the symbol BG0103 could be broken down to identify the following:
- The first two characters will be the same for all BGS, namely “BG”;
- The second two characters will reflect the tranche that these particular bonds were issued under; (the tranche number is displayed on page one of the Offering Memorandum for each tranche. Tranche 1, was issued in December 2014 and included 3 year bonds, 5 year bonds, 7 year bonds and 30 year bonds, all bonds issued under that Tranche would have “01” as their second two characters)
- The last two characters would reflect the term of the individual bonds, so the three year bond would have “03” as the last two characters.
Accordingly, the 30 year bond issued under Tranche 2, would be represented by the following symbol: BG0230.
These are the first two tranches of the BGS facility. Tranche 1 was issued in December 2014 and consists of 4 Notes of various maturities. Tranche 2 was issued in January 2015 and also consists of Notes of various maturities.