LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s new share trading platform for private companies is set for launch later this year, the financial watchdog said on Tuesday, after finalising rules for a market that regulators and the government hope will bolster the UK’s capital markets.
The Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES) will enable trading of shares in private companies. The first shares should be traded on the platform later this year through a “sandbox,” which is already open and allows regulators to test how it works before they finalise a permanent regime in 2030, the Financial Conduct Authority said.
PISCES is designed to connect owners of fledgling unlisted companies who want to sell shares in their businesses with new investors keen to help those firms to grow and scale up.
“The new platforms will give investors greater access and confidence to invest in exciting new companies, while early backers and employees can sell up and invest again,” Simon Walls, the FCA’s executive director of markets, said in a statement.
Emma Reynolds, the government’s economic secretary to the Treasury, welcomed the announcement and said PISCES would boost UK capital markets and support economic growth.
Companies wishing to run a PISCES platform will have to apply to the FCA. Once approved they will be able to run intermittent trading events, at which company owners can offer stock for sale at regular intervals, at prices they set, to new shareholders.
PISCES could help small companies with limited experience of capital markets get on the radar of cash-rich and supportive investors, without undertaking a full-scale initial public offering.
The concept of PISCES has proven a tough sell in some quarters of the UK industry, with bankers telling Reuters earlier this year that they fear hits to revenues and ultimately being bypassed in a booming market for private capital.
(Reporting by Tommy Reggiori WilkesEditing by Bernadette Baum)
