REAL estate investment trusts are generating significant interest in the Channel Islands Stock Exchange. Tax advisers and fund- management companies have been making enquiries about using the CISX to list UK trusts when they are introduced next year.

The exchange already lists more than 40 offshore property funds and with the requirement for Reits to be listed on an authorised system, chief executive Tammy Menteshvili believes the CISX is ideally suited.

‘We are being inundated with enquiries from tax advisers and fund-management groups and initial interest indicates that we are favoured over some other exchanges,’ she said.

Ms Menteshvili added that the local exhange offered a number of advantages.

‘The CISX combines flexibility with responsibility. It has received international recognition from the SEC in the United States, the UK Inland Revenue and FSA,’ she said.

‘We are located outside the European Union, which offers issuers huge advantages in certain circumstances.’

Ms Mentheshvili said the exchange added a new business dimension to the Channel Islands finance industries by attracting international issuers with no previous connections to Guernsey or Jersey.

‘We have been attracting listings from other centres such as Dublin and Cayman and, most recently, from the Isle of Man,’ she said.

‘There are over 150 international issuers utilising the facilities of the exchange and we have attracted some of the most prestigious international names including four major US investment banks that list their structured funds with us.’

Ms Menteshvili also referred to a number of other developments including the intention to create an index of CISX-listed securities by sector and possible Crest settlement for open-ended investment companies traded on the exchange.