The meaning of ‘public market’ in the context of a fund
Many investment funds are listed on a public stock exchange for informational purposes, in particular to facilitate the valuation of portfolios by investors or because it is a requirement for the fund to be listed on a public stock exchange to make it eligible for investment by entities that are required to invest only in listed securities. However, in spite of such a listing, subscriptions and redemptions are handled by a fund administrator or a transfer agent (acting on behalf of the fund) and no transactions are undertaken on the public stock exchange. In addition, the prices for those transactions are determined by the fund agreement, such as on the basis of the fund”s Net Asset Value, rather than the price quoted on the public stock exchange.
In our view the debt or equity instruments of such entities are not traded in a public market and so the entity would not fall within the scope of IFRS 8.