Live private equity trading in 600 unregistered securities began last Wednesday on Nasdaq Stock Market’s Portal system, the first instance of electronic trading of unregistered Rule 144A securities among multiple sell- and buy-side firms, Securities Industry reports.
The floorless exchange is pointing toward another milestone in November, when privately placed debt, the first bond products to trade on Nasdaq, is scheduled to trade on Portal.
Nasdaq now lists some convertible debt of Nasdaq issuers, which can be converted into underlying common stock, but “this is our first real foray into debt,” says EVP John Jacobs about the impending introduction of debt trading.
Jacobs called the private securities trading on the 17-year-old Portal system a response to “a transformation in the capital formation process.” Last year, there was more value in deals done via privately placed equities ($162 billion) than the total amount raised from all the initial public stock offerings on the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and American Stock Exchange combined ($154 billion).
“The 144A marketplace has become the primary way to raise capital in the US,” says Jacobs.