Brussels, 26/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - “The solution of the deregistration issue is a milestone of the Financial Markets Regulatory Dialogue between the EU and the US. This is very good news for our companies and economy,” said European Commissioner for the Internal Market in a press release on Friday 23 March. He says the new rule will “make it much easier” for European companies listed on US capital markets to terminate their US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting and leave if they should so decide.
According to SEC News, a company in the United States will be able to withdraw from the securities listing if the exchange of its securities on the American market is less than 5% of the worldwide exchange of its securities. In mid-February, Mr McCreevy wrote to the American authorities on the rules proposed by the SEC in December 2006, and he argued for a higher limit so that a greater number of European companies could take advantage from the new rules (see EUROPE 9366). However, the Commissioner was of the opinion that the general criteria envisaged for de-registration were sensible and achievable. “I will ask my services to get acquainted with the details of the new rule, which I hope would cover the main technical changes suggested in the last comments we sent,” he added. Under present US conditions, a foreign company can de-register only if fewer than 300 of its shareholders are American. Few companies satisfy this rule, which takes no account of either the value or number of shares, hence their impression that it is not possible to pull out. (mb)