Minister for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Richard Maru announced the launching of a new Capital Market product, a Debt Security or local bonds. This Capital Market product will be available on the Debt Market immediately. The companies who want to issue bonds must contact Papua New Guinea National Stock Exchange (PNGX).
“I have the powers under Section 153 of the Capital Market Act 2015 to approve the launching of the local bonds and I am satisfied that all the work has been done. It has taken us over 5 years (since 2017) to prepare PNGX and the Securities Commission of Papua New Guinea (SCPNG) for the issuance of the local bonds. The project was funded by the Australian Government, Marape-Rosso Government, the International Financial Corporation, the Asian Development Bank and all other stakeholders,” said Minister Maru.
“Only companies who have a net asset of K10 million and those who are rated by independent credit rating agencies will be considered by PNGX to issue bonds. In the coming weeks, we will announce the first company who will issue local bonds as we expand our capital market products to include debt security (like bonds). The target of the Marape-Rosso Government is to increase the size of our capital market in terms of equities from the current market capitalization of K135 billion to over K500 billion in the remaining four years of our term. This target will be reached if more companies are listed on PNGX. We want to introduce more capital raising platforms like Debt Securities, peer to peer, crowd funding, and small offers regime (SMEs) so we create more avenues for local investors to raise capital locally to fund the local capital needs,” said Minister Maru.
“We also want to support the development of a major real estate trust fund to mobilize funds for major real estate developments especially in Port Moresby and the Nadzab Airport City development,” added Minister Maru.
