The worst company on the ASX, one Australian founder recently quipped to Capital Brief, is the ASX itself. The remark was made off the cuff, but it reflects the general dissatisfaction with the local bourse from a wide range of its constituents in the local financial system.
There’s frustration at the exchange’s bungled process to replace its CHESS tech platform, which has been in place for 30 years. There’s an increasingly dismissive attitude towards the ASX investor base from tech founders, with the country’s biggest success stories bypassing the exchange altogether to head for the US. And there are concerns the exchange is no place for growth companies, unless you are from the mining industry, with the sub ASX 300 sector being described as a graveyard.
“Tech companies aren’t appreciated on the ASX. In part, that’s because there’s not a lot of research done on them to help the market understand them,” Judo Bank chief executive Joseph Healy recently told Capital Brief.
Folklore Ventures partner Alister Coleman expressed similar sentiments earlier this year when he said “there's a clear historical trend of listed and promising Australian tech companies being undervalued, opportunistically acquired or taken private” from the exchange.
