The oldest stock exchange in Ukraine, the PFTS, is ceasing operations due to inconsistency with the operating conditions put forward by the regulator, the National Securities and Stock Exchange Commission. Shareholders voted for the surrender of the license on April 29. This is reported on the exchange's website.
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The reason for making this decision is the insufficiency of its own reserves. The regulator requires that they amount to UAH 22 million, but the PFTS is secured by only UAH 11.9 million.
49.9% of the exchange’s shares have been owned since 2020 by China’s largest commodity exchange BOCE (Hong Kong) Co. Limited. Its director Yan Dongsheng sent a letter to President Vladimir Zelensky, the head of the OP Andrey Ermak, members of the government and the head of the National Securities Market Commission Ruslan Magomedov with a request to “facilitate a temporary deferment for the period of martial law” of the requirements of the said provision, but probably his letters were not heeded.
In order to comply with regulatory standards, shareholders on April 29 decided to conduct an additional issue of shares for UAH 30 million. But it seems that Chinese investors will not be able to take part in the repurchase of additional shares.
Earlier, the Ministry of Finance wrote that two out of three stock exchanges may lose their licenses. If there were claims against PFTS regarding capital, then there is a question about the presence of sanctioned persons among the shareholders of the Ukrainian Exchange. However, the UB reported that they cannot independently exclude them and will fight for a license in the courts.
If the UB is also closed, then there will be only one stock exchange left in Ukraine – “Perspective”.