On Thursday 24 May, the European Commission proposed new rules aiming to make it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to obtain financing on the stock markets, as announced in its mid-term action plan on the Capital Markets Union (see EUROPE 11804).
Despite the advantages of stock market floatation, the EU stock markets aimed at SMEs have struggled to attract new issuers. Of the 20 million SMEs in Europe, just 3,000 are stock-exchange listed, said the European Commissioner for Financial Services, Valdis Dombrovskis.
To remedy the situation, the Commission has focused on reducing the administrative formalities for SMEs wishing to access floatation and issue securities on “SME growth markets”, a new category of trading platforms specialising in small issuers.
Firstly, the Commission proposes to adapt the current requirement of holding registers of individuals with access to information liable to influence prices. The text also provides for a 'light' prospectus for SMEs already listed on a growth market for at least three years, in the event of transfer to a regulated market.
The Commission considers that an inadequate definition of SMEs issuing only bonds was one of the obstacles to the registration of certain trading platforms specialising in SME bonds as SME growth markets. The Commission now proposes to replace the current definition with a simple criterion of issuing volume, which has been set at €50 million over a period of 12 months.
Additionally, a new raft of common provisions concerning liquidity contracts has been tabled, which will apply to SME growth markets.
The Commission considers that all in all, these changes will considerably increase the number of registrations on the SME growth markets.
The new rules take the form of a proposed regulation modifying the regulations on market abuse and prospectuses, which must now be approved by the European Parliament and the Council. In addition, there is a draft delegated regulation, which will be put forward for consultation for a period of four weeks, before being formally adopted by the Commission and submitted for the scrutiny of the co-legislators. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)