On 24 May 2018, the EC published a proposal for a regulation to amend the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) and the new Prospectus Regulation. We discussed this in the January 2018 edition of this note.
The aim of the proposed regulation is to promote the use of SME Growth Markets by relaxing the regulatory requirements that apply to it, thereby reducing compliance costs and the administrative burden.
The proposed amendments to MAR include the following:
- SME Growth Market issuers must draw up insider lists of those with regular access to inside information, and only produce the list to the competent authority on request;
- SME Growth Market issuers that delay the disclosure of inside information will need to inform the competent authority of the delay, and only provide a reason for the delay on request; and
- SME Growth Market issuers will have two additional days to disclose any information on personal transactions declared to it by persons discharging managerial responsibilities, who will then have three days to notify the issuer.
The proposed amendments to the Prospectus Regulation are to allow SME Growth Market issuers of minimum three years to produce a lighter version of the prospectus when seeking admission to trading on a regulated market.
The EC is seeking feedback on the proposal by July 25, 2018, before passing to the European Parliament and Council for discussion. As currently drafted, the proposed regulation provides that it should apply six months after its entry into force, and this is to allow time for SME Growth Market operators to adapt their rulebooks.
The draft regulation is available here:
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
