Companies on Danish exchange will have to meet CISE criteria

If the deal for the CISE to buy GXG Markets is approved, as expected, the local exchange will significantly boost its levels of trading. Currently it has just one trading company listed.

The sale is progressing quickly after parent company GXG Global Exchange Group closed to new business at the end of June and then said it was relinquishing its licence from the Danish regulator.

Whatever the Danish exchange's issues, though, the CISE said that all of GXG's listings would have to go through the CISE's own checks before they would be listed locally.

The CISE currently has more than 2,000 listed entities but the vast majority are illiquid. Acquiring the GXG portfolio of about 60 SME trading companies, listed across three platforms, should they wish to move to the CISE, would significantly diversify its business model.

Diana Thompson, chief executive of the Channel Islands Securities Exchange Authority, the regulatory arm of the CISE, said the purchase offered a number of opportunities for the local exchange, which was restructured and relaunched at the end of 2013.

'We've already had some organic growth in the last 18 months, during which time we've opened our Jersey office,' she said.

'We've been looking to grow more product lines and do more business generally. The GXG acquisition gives us the ability to offer different products, offers us an enhanced trading system and three skilled employees based in London, all of which gives us an opportunity to raise the profile of the exchange and get better recognition in London.'