Bahrain Clear, which is fully owned by Bahrain Bourse, is set to launch the Bahrain Market for closed joint-stock companies on August 18, which will register these companies on the Bourse rather than the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
The Bahrain Private Market will be a unified and comprehensive platform for closed joint-stock companies, providing a wide range of electronic and secure services for registering shares, conducting transactions, linking, managing, and executing them in a safe and smooth manner.
Abdullah Jaafar Abdeen, Chief Operating Officer of Bahrain Clear, stated that Bahrain’s private market is a platform that will enable the preservation of shares in the Bahrain Clear Company in order to ensure the safe preservation of the shares while also providing transparency to shareholders.
“The Bahrain Private Market will provide an advanced and integrated package of services for closed joint-stock companies,” he said, adding that “these new services will help meet the needs of closed joint-stock companies while also providing more transparency and efficiency for these companies and related authorities.”
Regarding the annual registration fees for companies after their transfer to the Bahrain Stock Exchange, Abdeen said, “Closed companies will bear an annual registration fee of 500 dinars in exchange for advisory services to companies in making amendments to the articles of incorporation or transferring ownership, which usually requires the assistance of lawyers and legal advisors.”
In terms of the number of closed joint-stock companies that will be registered, Abdeen said that 600 closed joint-stock companies are currently registered in Bahrain, considering that transferring the data of all companies to the stock exchange will facilitate many of these companies operations in terms of share transfers and updating Information, among other things, as closed companies will be treasury companies.
Additionally, he stated that the Bahrain private market will provide a set of services for closed joint-stock companies, including updating partners (trading between existing shareholders), changing the names of authorized signatories, changing the names of managers, and changing the type of company, and mergers and incorporations.
“Closed joint-stock companies will be able to transfer ownership, reduce or increase the company’s capital, register, update, and delete mortgage operations, authorize the signing or lifting of the precautionary attachment, and the imposition or removal of receivership,” he explained.
Furthermore, Abdeen noted that the new platform will also manage electronic annual general (eAGM) meetings, cash dividends, stock options, auction services, electronic voting, and consolidated financial statements.
