Press Release

A revived Newcastle Stock Exchange is promoting itself as the Australian bourse of choice for small New Zealand companies. The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) this year changed its listing rules, making it possible for only the biggest New Zealand companies to have "foreign exempt status". This means they can have their company shares traded on the ASX, but do not have to comply with tougher Australian rules, particularly relating to information disclosure. Heritage Gold was one of the New Zealand companies that found itself too small to be able to meet new listing rules, so it has now applied for listing on the diminutive Newcastle Stock Exchange (NSX), which is making a push to get small firms from this side of the Tasman listed. Heritage has since found it may be allowed to stay on the ASX because of "grandfathering" provisions of the latest rule change. Heritage had full listing in the late 1980s, so the latest rule changes may not apply Company secretary Alison Griffiths said that nearly half of Heritage's 980 shareholders lived in Australia and listing on the Newcastle exchange was a way of helping these people, who owned more than half of the company's shares. Listing rules for the Newcastle exchange were not as stringent as the ASX, she said, and even if Heritage was successful in its attempt to stay on the ASX, it would maintain an NSX listing. The NSX, established in 1937, and the Bendigo Stock Exchange are the only Australian stock exchanges other than the ASX. Listing requirements for NSX include a market capitalisation of $A500,000 and a spread of 50 shareholders compared with A$10 million and 400 respectively to list on the ASX. Chapman Tripp lawyer Roger Wallis, who investigated NSX listing for Heritage, said getting onto the Newcastle exchange was easier for a small company than trying to get on the ASX, but there was not a lot of difference in the rules once listed. NSX general manager Scott Evans said the exchange would be a perfect way for smaller New Zealand companies to get listed in Australia. Advantages included the fact that there was no minimum number of Australian shareholders needed and all directors could be New Zealanders. Though there were only three companies listed on the exchange, Evans said he expected this number to rise to around 25 by the end of the year. The chairman and the chief operating officer of the NSX had both recently been in New Zealand, in an attempt to encourage smaller companies to seek dual listing. Rob Cameron, a stock broker at Cameron Stockbroking in Sydney, said the Newcastle Stock Exchange, while small, was being taken seriously by the investment community. It was viewed as either a "stepping-stone" to full listing, or a permanent home for smaller companies. Maintaining a big register was costly for companies on the ASX, which required 400 shareholders to maintain listing. "I think people are still looking at it. It's an awareness thing, as more companies get there, it will start to happen."