With staff operating across five international finance centres, including Jersey, TISE is best known as one of Europe’s major professional bond markets. In 2023, utilising the expertise and technology acquired from operating a public market, TISE launched a unique offering for the private markets, TISE Private Markets.
Complementing TISE’s core proposition for bond and equity listings, TISE Private Markets is a key part of its diversification strategy. It represents a significant landmark for TISE in what is its 25th anniversary year and adds another facet to Jersey’s infrastructure and expertise for serving a global client base.
Listings in 2023
The geopolitical instability, persistent inflation and rising interest rates which provided unfavourable macroeconomic conditions during the second half of 2022, continued to impact the capital markets during 2023. Despite the difficult climate, the total number of securities on TISE increased by 8.5% year on year to 4,140 at the end of June 2023, extending the record high since the Exchange’s market first opened in October 1998 and giving rise to a combined market value of £658 billion.
Although the latest GDP statistics and inflation figures may raise the prospect of an improved economic outlook, market activity is unlikely to improve significantly throughout 2023. However, a more stable external environment should precipitate growth in volumes during 2024.
Despite the adverse macroeconomic conditions, TISE continues to see diversification of its product range. In addition to private equity debt securities, convertibles, bond programmes, high yield bonds and securitisations, for the first time in several years TISE has seen a pipeline of Collateralised Loan Obligations (CLOs).
Bond Market Trends
The private equity sector has been less buoyant than in recent years but it remains active, with significant amounts of capital to be deployed and TISE remains the leading venue for the listing of securities related to these transactions.
Whilst activity has slowed most in products with greater exposure to the broader capital markets such as high yield and securitisations, TISE has won market share in CLO listings.
This trend reflects international regulatory changes which have benefitted Jersey, as well as underscoring the competitiveness of the proposition offered by TISE in collaboration with its Listing Members for warehousing financings, CLO transactions and refinancings.
Diversification and Scale
The UK remains the largest single domicile of issuers with listed securities on TISE. Thereafter, around 25% of issuers are domiciled in the European Union, predominantly Luxembourg, Ireland and The Netherlands. The remaining originate from across the globe, including Australia, Canada, Colombia, Norway and the United States.
TISE’s business continues to be facilitated primarily by its Members based in Jersey. These include law firms, banks, fund administrators and trust and corporate service providers, who innovate and promote the diverse range of products available on TISE.
TISE continues to see Membership numbers rise, with growth and internationalisation of the Membership base, including a new firm from Bermuda adding to the recent new Members from Ireland comprising the leading listing agents for Euronext Dublin’s GEM market.
Private Markets
After several years’ research and development, 2023 has seen the launch of TISE Private Markets and the onboarding of its first client, Blue Diamond Limited, which is one of the largest garden centre groups in the UK and the Channel Islands.
With more than 4,000 employees, annual revenues approaching £350 million and more than 420 private shareholders, the company is a well-known Channel Islands success story and therefore has the profile to join a public market, so it is a real coup that it chose to support TISE in the development of this service and become the first company to join.
TISE Private Markets provides unlisted companies with a dedicated marketplace through which they can access an integrated set of tailored electronic solutions, including trading, settlement and registry management. This service is expected to be highly attractive to other companies which are privately owned or otherwise currently quoted on public markets but seeking to return to a private ownership model.
This unique solution for privately owned structures represents a significant landmark in TISE’s 25-year history and the diversification of its offering. In doing so, it lays the foundations for TISE to develop additional adjacent services. With its reach in capital markets and corporate services, Jersey is ideally positioned to play a leading role in the delivery to public and private companies from across the world.
