Denmark wants to reduce the tax on equity investments, copying a Swedish and Norwegian model as it aims to encourage more companies to list their shares in Copenhagen, its business minister told Reuters.
With interest rates on bank deposits around zero, the government wants to use some of the 850 billion Danish kronor ($135 billion) that are currently effectively sitting idle on bank accounts in the country.
He suggested that each individual should be able to deposit up to 500,000 danish kronor that can be used for investing in stocks and pay 1.25 percent annually in tax on the deposit.
The aim is to make it more attractive for companies to make initial public offerings (IPO) on the Copenhagen stock exchange, Mikkelsen said.
Last year, only five companies listed in Copenhagen, compared to Sweden and Norway where 152 and 79 new companies listed, respectively.
Companies listing in Denmark last year included wind farm developer DONG Energy and card payment services company Nets
Mikkelsen expects the proposal to inject between 500 million kronor and 1 billion kronor each year into small and medium seized companies.
“I’m convinced that this proposal will lead to many more stock exchange listings in Denmark,” he said.
“I think this proposal can be a breakthrough for creating a Danish shareholder culture, which we so badly have wanted for many years,” Mikkelsen said.
The proposal will be finalised next week, when the liberal minority government will propose its budget plan for next year.
Source : Nasdag
Afroscandic – Celebrating and Connecting Africa and Scandinavia
Leave a Reply