Here Christopher Ecclestone of Hallgarten and Company weighs in the chances the TSX Venture’s chief Canadian competitor gains appeal.
LONDON – Circumstances brought us, over the last month, to ponder the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) for a number of reasons. Not having focused before on the alphabet soup of alternative markets in that country, it came as a bit of a surprise to see that the entity that was known until recently as the CNSX had not started to lift its game and seriously challenge the dominance of the now bank-owned TMX combine.
The main motor for this change was the acquisition of 50% of the equity of the CNSX by Ned Goodman, one of the doyens of the Canadian mining investment scene and owner of the mighty Dundee group.
There was much bewailing in 2013 that the old spirit of the Vancouver Stock Exchange had been desexed by the merger with the TSX (though no-one bewailed the demise of the Montreal Exchange). From what we can gather Goodman wants to harvest some of this dissatisfaction and is targeting companies fed up with the TSXV and encouraging them to move the way of the CSE.
The rejazzed entity though is not promising the old cowboys their chance at returning to Wild West behavior. Rules are rules and much of the CSE’s rule book mirrors that of the other two exchanges, so those wanting the spirit of Bre-X are likely to be disappointed.
Frankly the incursion of Goodman into this sphere is to be welcomed. The takeover of the TMX in 2012 by a consortium of banks was just about the epitome of what is wrong with modern equity markets. As the 1970s through to the 1990s brought the demutualization of the majority of the world’s principal exchanges with most ending up as listed entities themselves, everyone patted themselves on the back that the old gentlemen’s clubs had been disbanded.
Now in a rather short cycle, most of the newly liberated exchanges have been merged into behemoth entities (this being particularly the case in Continental Europe).
For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-exploration?oid=235701&sn=Detail