Unlisted market trading surge expected into Q4

PrimaryMarkets, an Australian trading platform providing investors dedicated access to unlisted companies, has recorded more than $4 million in trading activity in Q3 of FY2024, with a 55% surge in new trading entities onboarded to its platform over the previous quarter.

A total of 465 new trading entities were onboarded and verified by the trading platform in Q3 FY24, up from 300 recorded in the previous quarter.

PrimaryMarkets attributed the growth to “ongoing technological enhancements” to its platform.

“Several other new technical enhancements to support the current and future onboarding of trading hubs pivotal to PrimaryMarkets’ growth strategy have been completed and also went live in April,” said Primary Markets executive chair Jamie Green.

Investors successfully executed 103 trades on the platform in Q3, collectively trading upwards of 4.9 million shares.

Green said the increase in new accounts and overall trading activity in unlisted entities has shown the “trend of investors seeking different ways to access these opportunities as more companies choose to remain private and many others are actually delisting from the ASX”.

He added: “Many companies are deciding to stay private for longer and alternative funding helps facilitate this. They appreciate that high-growth strategies often don’t suit shareholders focused on short-term earnings and dividends.”

PrimaryMarkets currently has 113 open investment opportunities on its platform, comprising a mixture of secondary trading, trading hubs, capital raises and investor hubs.

Owned by the ASX-listed Complii Group, PrimaryMarkets specialises in capital-raising opportunities for unlisted companies and trading hubs.

The platform is targeted at high-level investors, including companies, fund managers and sophisticated and institutional investors.

Among the options available to investors across more than 30 sectors include US neobanking giant Chime, RPA software developer Automation Anywhere, and Canada-based biotech firm Biocure Technology.

Craig Mason, executive chair of Primary Markets’ parent company Complii, said the platform was “seeing a great start to Q4 FY24” adding that he was “particularly pleased with PrimaryMarkets’ great results in April”.

Canada deal presents new investment opportunities

PrimaryMarkets has also confirmed a new collaboration deal with Hiive, a Canada-based trading platform for private and venture capital-backed companies.

The deal will give PrimaryMarkets’ Australian user base access to Hiive’s more than 2,000 international pre-IPO companies.