The Securities Commission (SC) in Malaysia has shortened its timeframe for the review and consideration of initial public offering (IPO) applications of companies with large capitalisation. The SC will now decide within a month from submission date on proposed IPOs by companies with market capitalisation of at least RM500 million. This new timeframe would also apply to foreign companies applying to list in Malaysia following the release of SC’s foreign listing guidelines in June 2006.
The new timeframe is a significant reduction from the current three month timeline taken to review listing proposals in general. With the shorter timeframe, “big-cap” companies which meet the listing criteria can be listed faster on BursaMalaysia.
The new timeframe is among the regulator’s recent endeavors to improve efficiency, effectiveness and transparency, which included its release in July 2006 of performance data on corporate proposals reviewed for the first half of 2006. It will also improve the delivery of regulatory services to the market. There will be quicker time to market and more certainty on the outcome of a proposal. The timeframe for securities issued by listed companies on a rights basis is also being reduced.
The new timeframe would apply to stand-alone rights proposals which do not involve valuation of assets, do not result in significant changes in business direction of the issuer and do not involve related-party transactions. Such proposals will now be decided within 5 working days, as compared to the current 21 working days.
The SC has assured that the applications which fully comply with all listing requirements, are complete with all the information necessary for SC to make its decision, and do not display corporate governance concerns, will be decided within the new timeframe.
“With faster review by the SC there will be quicker time to market and more certainty on the outcome of a proposal,” says a spokeswoman for Maybank.