PNGX, partner working to create SME crowd-funding facility

THE PNG Stock Exchange (PNGX) is working with a partner to develop a crowd-funding facility for small-medium enterprises (SME) to access finance, says chairman David Lawrence.
Lawrence said the facility would hopefully be funded by local retail and institutional investors. In addition, the PNGX is also working on its own fund which will be listed to provide capital directly to SMEs or indirectly through financial institutions.
“SMEs are the lifeblood of an economy and from our perspective, they are the listed companies of tomorrow,” Lawrence said. “So we are really interested to assisting the SME sector and helping them to grow into sustainable companies.
“Crowd funding is a key part of the extension of our offerings to the market to give access for SMEs to new forms of capital.
“We see that as a key part of developing that life cycle of companies within the economy.
“We are working with a partner and hoping to be able to announce something later this year.
“We are expecting it to be funded by local retail and institutional investors.
“We are working on our own fund which will be a listed fund and the role of that fund will be to provide access to capital to either directly to SME’s or indirectly by financial institutions to provide finance to micro and small enterprise.”