The Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM) has reacted to an article in l’Express about alleged “suspicious” listing of Regis Holdings. It has issued a communique “to refute a number of misrepresentations made in the article and shed light on the facts related to the listing of Regis Holdings.”
On July 20, 2021, l’Express reported that Regis Holdings, an offshore company based in Mauritius, managed to get listed and then de-listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM) without selling a single share. “There are concerns that the SEM may have been used to move funds of questionable sources,” the newspaper cited an investigative journalist as claiming in an article published in early June.
In its reply, the SEM said that Regis Holdings Ltd was listed on the Official Market of the SEM on 29 March 2019 “following the strict compliance” of its listing application with Chapter 18A of SEM’s Listing Rules.
“Prior to listing Regis Holdings on the Official Market, SEM commissioned a London-based entity, which specialises in due diligence exercises, to conduct a thorough due diligence exercise on the company and its directors. The due diligence report dated 15 January 2019 gave a clean report on all the persons concerned with regards to matters such as political exposure, corruption, money laundering, fraud, regulatory violations, amongst others,” it said.
SEM added that trading in the shares of Regis Holdings did take place on the SEM and 10,000 shares were exchanged on its first day of listing.
SEM pursued that Regis Holdings had “complied with all its post-listing obligations” and published its quarterly and audited yearly abridged accounts. “In addition, the full audited accounts for the year ended 31 December 2019 were issued by Regis Holdings with a clean audit report.”
Regis Holdings reportedly opted for a delisting from the SEM in view of its merger with a Maltese company, “which is itself already listed on the Malta Stock Exchange.”
