One of the community files that has fallen on the table of the Ministry of Economic Affairs for its impetus during the Spanish presidency of the EU in the second half of the year is the one known as the Listing Act, the new European regulation to revive the stock market exits
The rule reduces the deadlines for public offers for the sale of shares (OPV) and includes measures such as a simplification of the confusing exit brochures, which are usually a headache for companies. If approved, the prospectus will be limited to 300 pages, a fact that, despite its length, will reduce the current number by more than half. For a company, this measure will lead to significant savings in consultants and professional services.
Community regulation includes more measures and is the most ambitious in order to encourage the stock markets with the arrival of new companies. It is not the only initiative, as the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) works on different formulas from Spain, including the one that has exempted listed companies from offering quarterly information for two years now.
The new Law on the Stock Market, recently approved by Congress, already reduces the issue brochures for fixed income securities such as corporate bonds and also incorporates the figure of SPACs into the Spanish regulations, which have been very fashionable in the USA
A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is a fast-track listing formula in which an empty company is taken public with the aim of merging it with a traditional company, which automatically remains integrated into the parquet. The Catalan company Wallbox is listed in New York thanks to a SPAC.
Sources from the CNMV indicate that the supervisor is very committed to reducing bureaucratic burdens and the amount of information that is required in the listed companies, without damaging the rights of shareholders to be aware of their investments.
The body chaired by Rodrigo Buenaventura has also proposed a reduction in the fees charged to companies to jump to the public prosecutor’s office. The CNMV has a surplus of 12 million euros that goes to the Treasury and considers that these amounts would have a more effective use if they served to reduce the burden on companies.
One of the arguments repeated by the CNMV is that the energy transition and the digitization of the economy will require investments of close to 300,000 million euros and that of this amount the banks can barely contribute 100,000 million. The rest of the financing must come from different sources and one of these must be the stock markets, in which shareholders can invest in business projects.
At European level, there is also a proposal for a directive known as Debra (intended to reduce the bias that exists in some member states between the tax treatment of financial expenses and that of financing through equity). The aim is to equate the tax burden on market operations with that of interest on bank debt.
The president of the CNMV has emphasized in recent speeches the need for “more listed companies” and has asked that non-listed companies also be required to provide information related to aspects such as financial information on sustainability in order not to have an advantage over the that are on the stock market.
In its relationship with listed companies, the central government has just promoted the parity law, which obliges them to have a minimum of 40% women on the boards of directors.
