City executives including Trinity Mirror’s Sly Bailey plan exchange for real estate
A team of high-profile City executives is preparing to launch the world’s first exchange to trade shares in companies that own single commercial property assets, opening up commercial property investment opportunities to a wider range of investors.
The venture, London Real Estate Exchange Limited, has been working on plans for months to allow the owners of individual properties to float their holdings, according to Sky News. The exchange could be launched within months, pending approval from the Financial Conduct Authority.
The board of the company includes heavyweight City figures such as Sly Bailey, former boss of Trinity Mirror, former LCH Clearnet chief Ian Axe and Sir Brian Ivory, who chairs the hedge fund Marathon Asset Management. It will be chaired by Anthony Gahan, a senior investment banker at Wyvern Partners.
Sources said that issuers listed on the exchange, which will trade as International Properties Securities Exchange, or IPSX, would be single commercial real estate asset-owners with a market value of more than £25m.
Once launched, it will open up the commercial real estate market to a wider range of investors.
“It will allow owner-occupiers to release value locked-up in their properties while enabling them to retain equity control,” a person familiar with the IPSX’s plans told Sky News. “It will fulfil a substantial unsatisfied demand from corporate owners.”
The new exchange will oblige issuers to comply with financial disclosure requirements akin to a conventional equity exchange in order to ensure robust governance standards, the source said.