Now that the stock exchange has been established it faces the challenge of sustaining itself once financing through the UK government ends next year.

British High Commissioner, Stephen Hiscock set out the task ahead at the official launch of the Guyana Association of Securities Companies and Intermediaries Inc. (GASCI), the body licenced to administer stock trading, on the top floor of the Hand in Hand Building yesterday.

The exchange has been open for three months but trading has been light with only 3,544,308 shares traded for a total value of $29,305,932.

Those in attendance yesterday included the United States Ambassador Roland Bullen, Head of the Privatisation Unit Winston Brassington and representatives of companies whose shares are traded on the exchange.

Hiscock said that GASCI and the Guyana Securities Council (GSC), in facing the challenge of becoming sustainable, would both need the support of reporting issuers and investors so that they could benefit from listing and other related fees, with the cessation of Department for International Development (DFID) funding.

In his remarks, Prime Minister Sam Hinds suggested that the fears some companies had of going public should now be washed away with the success of the exchange. He once again tried to interest investors in the state-owned Guyana Power and Light Company Limited (GPL).

Chandra Gajraj, one of the directors of GASCI and a representative of Trust Company Guyana Limited, said that work on the stock exchange started many years ago with help from the then UK Overseas Development Agency, now DFID. Since 1988, Jonathan Miller of the Adam Smith Institute has been visiting Guyana assisting with the stock market’s development after then President Desmond Hoyte had met with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Gajraj said businesses remained vulnerable to the high interest rates associated with bank loans and as such the exchange could provide for a viable way to raise capital.

She made the point that the aim of GASCI was to build investor confidence. She encouraged companies whose shares were being traded on the exchange to become listed with GASCI, as this lent prestige to a company and made it easier to raise capital through shares. Chief Executive Officer of GASCI, Patrick van Beek said Banks DIH Limited and Sterling Products Limited had recently approached GASCI with an interest in becoming listed with the exchange.

Trading is done every Monday at 10 am; there are 14 companies registered through the Guyana Securities Council (GSC) whose shares are traded. Among the companies which have been active are Banks DIH Limited, Demerara Distillers Limited and the Demerara Tobacco Company.

Trust Company Guyana Limited, Beharry Stockbrokers Limited and GNCB Trust Limited are the three brokers executing trades. (Johann Earle)