Nexii and the Stock Exchange of Mauritius open invitation to high impact social and environmental purpose businesses and impact investment funds to apply for listing on the world’s first impact investing exchange board, the iX.
The iX is now open to qualifying social and environmental purpose initiatives and impact investment funds seeking a listing in the public capital markets to raise funds for growth and expansion. The Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM) has established the iX in collaboration with Nexii, a social enterprise with deep and extensive roots in Africa and a solid track record of performance and contribution in the field of impact investing.
Nexii’s mission is to make impact investing a reality at scale by radically improving the systems for trust, transparency, credibility and comparability across impact investment options. Nexii has been spearheading the development of a globally relevant impact investment exchange board and investment marketplace for the last three years and has designed the iX in collaboration with the SEM following more than two years of extensive research into the needs of both investors and social businesses seeking to raise capital.
In line with its mission, the iX represents an important breakthrough in facilitating the flow of capital to deliver effective solutions to global social and environmental challenges, whilst providing important mechanisms for mission protection. Regulatory approval of the iX, achieved in May 2011, represents a critical turning point for the sector and could help other similar initiatives seeking to progress on the basis of comparability and consistency in listing rules and reporting obligations.
“We are delighted to have a established a collaobration with the SEM and are excited to be engaging with a number of suitable social enterprises throughout Africa, Latin America, the US andthe UK and believe we are well on track to achieving our target of 15 initial listings before year end.. Our research has confirmed a strong appetite for impact investing, with initialsocial enterprises in our pipeline eager to raise more than $2 billion within the next 12 months and almost 60% of Impact Investors surveyed being willing to move between 1 and 5% of their assets under management to a social exchange board within the next 2 years” says Tamzin Ractliffe, Ashoka fellow and founder CEO of Nexii.
Ractliffe also pointed out that the SEM is an ideal African partner to launch the iX. “The SEM has world class rules and regulations and efficient trading, clearing and settlement systems that promote the principles of market integrity, investor protection and efficient price discovery, and the iX adds mission protection for impact purpose initiatives. As a fully-fledged member of the World Federation of Exchanges, a recognised Stock Exchange by the United Kingdom’s Her Majesty’s Revenue And Customs, as well as an Approved Stock Exchange by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, the SEM speaks to investors from across the globe” she said.
In addition, the SEM offers an attractive platform for listing because of a number of competitive advantages such as the enabling environment (Mauritius is rated as the best African country for ease of doing business), the openness of the SEM to international investors (40% of daily trading volumes on SEM are effected by international investors ), the English-based regulatory framework that is easily understandable by the international investor, the absence of Exchange control, the lack of capital gains tax on profits realized through the sale of shares listed on SEM, no withholding taxes on dividends/interests paid by listed companies, and the possibility to list and trade on the SEM in a number of currencies including the USD, the Euro. the GBP. The SEM’s live presence on all major international data vendors including Bloomberg, Thompson Reuters, Financials Times, Factset and Inet Bridge also provides access to the global capital markets for all listed companies. Nexii invites interested companies to visit www.Nexii.com or contact info@Nexii.com for more information
About Nexii Nexii’s roots lie in the GreaterGood Group of companies (the GreaterGood South Africa Trust, GreaterCapital and the South African Social Investment Exchange) which were all built from inception in 1997 by social entrepreneur and Ashoka fellow, Tamzin Ractliffe. Nexii was conceptualised as a social enterprise with the intention of solving some of the barriers blamed for the low level of capital flows to impact investment. Nexii’s primary purpose is to increase and improve the flow of capital to high impact social and environmental initiatives addressing critical global challenges. Nexii is a catalyst in the Impact Investing sector, building information channels that will connect communities, capital and change for positive social and environmental impact. Nexii aims to improve the capital marketplace for Impact Investment by establishing the meeting place for investors and investments that are social, environmental or sustainable in nature with a specific focus on those investments defined as impact investments. To increase the flow of impact capital to address the world’s social and environmental challenges, Nexii’s global operations work together to:
For more information, please contact Tamzin Ractliffe tamzin@Nexii.com
