PISCES - A new type of regulated trading platform
The Private Intermittent Securities and Exchange System (PISCES) will be a new type of regulated trading platform for unlisted securities and forms a key part of the Government's agenda to reform and reinvigorate UK capital markets. The Government hopes that PISCES will provide private companies and unlisted public companies (whether incorporated in the UK or overseas) with a stepping stone to listing on public markets and provide investors with more opportunities to invest in growth companies allowing them to share in their returns.
PISCES will operate as a secondary market allowing for the trading of existing shares during intermittent trading windows, for example ad hoc, quarterly, biannually, yearly or as determined by the issuing company. A company will not be able to raise new capital by issuing shares on a PISCES platform.
The wide group of potential participants in a PISCES platform include:
- existing shareholders;
- persons who are employees or directors or other officers of the participating company or of another company within the same group as the participating company;
- persons who (directly or indirectly through a third party) provide services to the participating company or to another company within the same group as the participating company;
- high net-worth individual investors or companies and self-certified or certified sophisticated investors;
- a person who is a trustee of an employee share scheme or of a share incentive plan, of the participating company; and
- financial intermediaries, including financial intermediaries of the PISCES operator and of the participating company.
The Government had hoped to deliver the necessary legislation by May 2025, but there is no launch date yet.
