It appears an alternative stock exchange is on its way to Wilmington.
The start-up Delaware Board of Trade has been working to create the exchange.
The opportunity to do so stems from changes made by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act passed by Congress in 2012. One of the changes it made to spur the growth of small and medium sized companies was allowing them to sell up to $50 million in shares in a 12-month period without the full reporting requirements of going public. Previous rules capped such offerings at $5 million – which hardly made it worthwhile for small companies to seek going on an exchange.
Now – The Delaware Board of Trade looks to provide a venue for them to do so.
Earlier this year – New Castle County government OK’d a $15 million dollar revenue bond to help develop the project. Then just this week, County Exec. Tom Gordon’s administration announced – over objections from some on County Council – that it is investing $3 million in the Delaware Board of Trade through a loan from a county-controlled trust that funds county parks – with interest from the loan continuing to fund the parks and the Board of Trade offering its trading software as collateral.
And the City of Wilmington is also considering putting up $2 million from the Wilmington Urban Development Action Grant Corp., an agency that allocates federal Housing and Urban Development dollars to distressed areas.
What exactly will all this investment be creating? We asked Dennis Toner - one of the Delaware Board of Trade’s board directors - to join us to explain. The former aide to Vice President Joe Biden spoke with The Green earlier this week.
