On Wednesday 6 March, representatives of the European Parliament and the Presidency of the Council of the European Union reached a provisional agreement on the proposal for a regulation to facilitate access for European SMEs to capital markets and, in particular, to SME growth markets.
As the positions of the parties are relatively close, the agreement was reached at the end of a single trilogue negotiating session and has yet to be confirmed by the EU co-legislators.
Certain administrative and regulatory requirements for companies accessing ‘SME growth markets’ will be reduced. This applies in particular to liquidity contracts intended to facilitate trading in SME shares. The same applies to the list of insiders that the competent authority may request, which will include a smaller number of identified persons.
“Two priorities have guided my work in the European Parliament: reducing administrative burdens for SMEs and providing them with new sources of funding. These two principles are reflected in this text”, welcomed Anne Sander (EPP, France), rapporteur on this issue, for whom the ‘SME growth markets’ can be seen as “a springboard to then go listed on regulated markets”.
Parliament have reportedly given in on the issue of prospectus transfer. After two years, an SME will be able to transfer its shares - but not bonds - from a growth market to a regulated market.
On the other hand, MEPs have secured the establishment of a stakeholder group to study the obstacles of the prudential framework limiting the investments of institutional actors.
The agreed text of the legislative proposal, which amends the 'market abuse' and 'prospectus' regulations, will be submitted to Parliament for a vote at the April plenary session in Strasbourg. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)