Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The Malta Stock Exchange (MSE) will soon be forming three working committees aimed at expanding and enhancing its business development objectives in 2016 and beyond.

The committees to be formed are the Islamic Finance Committee, the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Committee, and the China Listing Committee.

MSE chairman Joseph Portelli said that he and the board were keen to develop new product lines to take the Exchange and Malta’s financial industry to new heights.

He said he was looking forward to working with the Finance Ministry and the Exchange’s executive team to develop strategies for developing three key areas, and to work with stakeholders to enhance Maltese capital markets.

The committees will be chaired by the Exchange’s chairman and will be staffed with internal and external experts who will develop guidelines and processes for these strategic areas.

For example, the REIT Committee will explore the feasibility of introducing these securities to the Maltese markets to help local companies finance existing and planned real-estate projects.

The China Listing Committee will explore how Chinese companies can be prompted to dual-list in Malta, affording them passporting rights within the Europ-ean Union.  The Exchange is also exploring introducing local stakeholders to novel financial securities such as preferred securities and Project Revenue Bonds.

Some members of these committees will come from a recent initiative undertaken by the Exchange to form an External Advisory Board, which is made up of six professionals from outside the Exchange.

“Malta’s recent economic growth has been the envy of Europe, and a robust local capital market will only fuel further growth. Simply, we need to open the Exchange to new and innov-ative ideas,” Mr Portelli said.

Currently two new business initiatives are close to fruition and will be rolled out by Q1 2016. The MSE will be introducing Prospects, a domestic capital market platform designed to cater for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) seeking to raise  cost-effective capital in the area of €3 million to €5 million.

Prospects can also address succession planning concerns.

The Exchange is also planning roadshow trips to Dubai and to countries in sub-Saharan Africa to promote Malta as a destination to dual-list companies in these growing emerging markets and attract companies falling within the Islamic Finance framework.

There is also significant interest being registered from Italian and Spanish intermediaries in the Maltese capital market.