PLUS news

Mining and oil investor Caspian Minerals has become the first company to issue global depositary receipts (GDRs) – tradeable bank certificates – on PLUS.

In a sign of the ongoing evolution of PLUS, the GDRs were introduced by PLUS adviser Axiom Capital through depositary behemoth the Bank of New York Mellon. With 100,000 depositary receipts, each representing ten shares at US$10 per GDR, the issue was valued at $1 million.

Paul Haddock, head of capital markets at PLUS, believes this development ‘demonstrates our willingness to facilitate access to the capital markets for different kinds of issuers and security types’. Furthermore, in January a surge in volumes to almost five billion shares traded helped PLUS overtake the Chi-X exchange to become the second-placed exchange for UK stocks so far in 2009.

Meanwhile, new PLUS-quoted entrants in recent weeks have included Texas-based oil and gas producer Frontier Resources, led by experienced oilman and CEO Michael Keyes. Joining by way of introduction with a £2.8 million valuation, Frontier is looking to expand its US production and scout for acquisitive deals. Another, Creative Financial Technologies (CFT), is a £6 million counter providing technology-related services to Africa’s emerging financial services sector, with a stated acquisitive brief.