Finance Minister aims to list new energy company
Published: Thursday, November 7, 2013
In saying he wanted to double the number of companies listed on the T&T Stock Exchange (TTSE), Finance Minister Larry Howai said Government will be playing a leading role in this initiative, starting with the listing of a new company that would hold the National Gas Company’s (NGC) shareholding in Phoenix Park Gas Processors Company Ltd (PPGPL). There are currently 30 companies listed on the TTSE.
In August, NGC paid $3.9 billion for a 39 per cent stake in PPGPL owned by American energy giant ConocoPhillips. Speaking at yesterday’s Sixth Annual National Services Week 2013 at the Hilton Trinidad hotel, St Ann’s, on the session titled, Financial Services Sector: Creating the Future You Want. Howai said the energy-based company is expected to be listed on the TTSE by April 2014.
“Several other state enterprises which require strategic investors, such as the Vehicle Maintenance Company of T&T, the National Helicopter Services Ltd, the National Flour Mills Ltd, and the Point Lisas Industrial Port Development Ltd, have also been identified as possible listings,” Howai said.
“Apart from the listing of state enteprises in the TTSE, we are also considering entering into discussions with some of the energy companies and the major local conglomerates with regard to the possibility of listing more of their subsidiaries on the local stock exchange.
“It is expected that as market activity increases with more companies listing on the TTSE, we shall see an increase in the number of regional cross listings on the TTSE,” Howai said.
He said the broadening of the stock exchange will open up the possibilities of developing capital market relationships with Central America, and the acquisition of other stock exchanges by the TTSE is certainly an initiative that I would like to see considered.
