THE Vancouver Stock Exchange's (VSE) newly launched Asian Board has already attracted keen interest, with 12 companies in the process of filing initial public offerings or completing reverse takeovers.
Exchange president and chief executive Don Hudson said yesterday most of the Asian Board applicants were from Hong Kong and they included a retailer and light manufacturers.
He said this group included subsidiaries of companies listed in Hong Kong, which wanted to spin off small units before eventually listing them in Hong Kong when they met market requirements.
The other listing applicants are involved in the brewing, land development, telecommunications, hospitality, and oil and gas sectors.
Vancouver's Asian Board has been promoted as the first securities board in North America created exclusively for Asian companies. Mr Hudson said expressions of interest had come from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, the Philippines and Singapore.
''We believe that some of the companies that are successful in going public on our Asian Board may well list on other exchanges such as Hong Kong, Taipei, Shenzhen or Shanghai after three to five years with Vancouver,'' Mr Hudson said. ''In our view, that would be a natural evolution.'' Asian Board listing applicants are required to have an operating history, pre-tax profits in two of the three fiscal years immediately preceding the date of application, pre-tax income of at least C$400,000 (about HK$2.28 million) in the most recent fiscal year and net tangible assets of at least $5 million, or net tangible assets of $12 million without having net income.