Moulton’s comments appeared in an article in the Financial Times today, as the stock exchange announced, in a statement on its website, that it was "gradually able to apply more capacity at this stage…to consider new listing applications with no apparent suitability issues".
Moulton, a well known venture capitalist and founder of Better Capital, told the FT that the exchange was “reasonably hopeful of resuming full ‘normal service’ quite soon”.
As reported, the CISX announced on Monday that it was suspending all new listings while an investigation begun 20 months ago was completed.
The statement cited "defects" in the "complex and unusual structure" of the exchange, and said that in order to deal with these, as well as to segregate certain "historic issues" uncovered by the investigation, it would undertake a restructuring.
In today’s statement, the CISX said that although it is able to consider new listing applications now, it is, for the moment, still not able to take on "particularly complex or unusual structures, irrespctive of whether the application has previously been submitted". Also, it said, its usual "48-hour turnaround time may not be quite achievable", although the exchange will "endeavour" to meet member requirements.
Moulton, who yesterday told International Adviser he had “no useful comment” to make on the matter, did not tell the FT who, if anyone, is likely to succeed the 15-year-old stock exchange’s departed chief executive, Tamara Menteshvili, who had headed up the exchange from its launch. She resigned last month to "pursue other interests”, the exchange said.
Moulton said the exchange was “getting good co-operation from the States of Guernsey and the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC)” as it went about its restructuring.
Neither Moulton nor CISX or GFSC officials have revealed the nature of the "historic issues" uncovered by the investigation, but market sources have suggested that listings belonging to Arch Cru, the UK asset manager which had its funds suspended in 2009 due to liquidity problems, may have been involved.
Concerns limited to ‘historic’ matters
In his original statement on the CISX website on Monday, Moulton said that it was not possible at that moment in time to assess the "potential effects upon the company’s business model" of the investigation, but stressed that the investigation was limited to "historic" matters, and that nothing about the exchange’s current operation was being investigated.
Separately, Moulton noted in his statement that although the exchange remained "very liquid, with substantial net cash" on hand, it was not expected to make a profit this year, owing to "significant costs" incurred as a result of the departure of Menteshvili.
Some £500,000 had been set aside by the CISX to cover costs to date and any "possible regulatory settlements, although no liability for such is currently [being] admitted," he added.
As reported, Moulton was named CISX chairman earlier this year. Around the same time, Stephen Lansdown, one of the founders of UK-based Hargreaves Lansdown, also joined its board, as a non-executive director.
Earlier this month, Moulton’s company, Better Capital, received an award at the 2013 Insolvency & Rescue Awards for "Business Rescue Financier of the Year".
