by Julie Wilson

THE HIGH LEVEL of takeover activity on the regional capital markets has thrown Tuesday's start-up of the Caribbean Exchange Network (CXN) in doubt.

Senior trader with Signia Financial Group Inc., Ayesha Maycock told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY the delay came as no surprise since the alliance of the Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica Stock Exchanges was supposed to be in place since mid-2007.

She further explained that takeover activity which began last year – involving companies such as WIBISCO, FirstCaribbean, Barbados Farms, and the sometimes controversial takeover bidding process for Barbados Shipping & Trading by Trinidadian industrial giant Neal & Massy and Royal Bank of Canada's $4 billion buyout of RBTT – had distracted regulators.

These transactions kept regulators busy and as such took precedence due to the time lines involved in the process, Maycock explained.

Additionally, she said, regulators in the respective countries had to do their own due diligence to ensure that decisions conformed to the rules in their jurisdictions.

Chief executive officer and general manager of the Barbados Stock Exchange Marlon Yarde said the various exchanges were unable to proceed because regulators had not met and agreed to proposals submitted by the respective countries since last November.

"We are basically waiting on them, we cannot force their hands on it [CXN]," Yarde added.

Neal & Massy managing director Bernard Dulal Whiteway recently lamented the lack of harmonised regulations governing activity on the Caribbean capital market.