Country Report Seychelles June 2011

Economic policy: Plans for a local stock market are advancing

To facilitate the development of the financial sector in Seychelles, the government hopes to launch the archipelago's first stock exchange by 2012. However, plans remain at a draft stage, and recent reports that SIBA has already licensed a South African firm, Anglorand, to set up the exchange appear to be premature. Anglorand is, nevertheless, one of the main contenders and has been working on the project since 2008, before plans were derailed by the global recession and Seychelles' debt crisis. A local bourse would be small and illiquid at first, with a few counters only, including perhaps the SSB, the State Assurance Company (SACOS) and the privately owned Seychelles Breweries, but it could over time attract other enterprises, including in tourism. A stock exchange would, in theory, offer a new and cheaper source of corporate financing (via listings and bonds), a new avenue for investment by households and institutions, a platform for the secondary trading of government securities and an alternative route for privatisation.

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