Listing Act, or facilitation for issuers

Changes to EU capital market regulations under the Listing Act package have reached publication. They mainly boil down to simplifying procedures for companies already present on the stock market to raise capital, and on the issue of identifying and publishing inside information.

The most important change is undoubtedly the so-called prospect-free issues. Companies that have been listed for at least 18 months on the regulated market or NewConnect will be able to start issuing shares without having to create and approve a prospectus. The company will, of course, be required to prepare appropriate information documentation for the issue, but it will not be subject to evaluation by external parties before publication, companies will be free to do so. The need to wait for prospectus approval is dropped, which will undoubtedly streamline the whole process.

As for the changes regarding the identification and publication of confidential information, they boil down to allowing the relevant entities to delay publication for processes that can be described as lengthy. At this stage, there is still no information about the specific events that would determine the necessity of publishing the insider information in question, so we are still left waiting. Precise identification of these events will be crucial for a real assessment of how much these changes will affect the issue at hand in practice.

The above proposed changes presented by the EU legislation allow us to conclude that we are moving in the right direction (any simplification in the functioning of companies within the capital markets should certainly be considered as such), but as is usually the case – it is market practice after the changes come into force that will ultimately confirm to what extent they have had a real effect.