Article written by KWM Finance team in Madrid
In April 2017, the EU Council approved new rules on prospectuses in order to improve the access to financial markets for companies, in particular SMEs (Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and the Council, the “Prospectus Regulation”).
2017年4月,欧盟理事会批准招股说明书新规定,以改善企业,特别是中小企业的金融市场准入制度(欧洲议会和理事会2017年第1129号条例(欧盟法规)《招股说明书规定》)。
The Prospectus Regulation simplifies the requirements that companies must meet in the prospectuses that they publish when issuing equity or debt securities to be traded on a public market.
《招股说明书规定》简化了企业发行在公开市场上交易的股票和债券时, 发布招股说明书所必须满足的要求。
The new regulation is designed to repeal and replace the prospectus directive adopted in 2003 (as amended in 2010). The main difference between these two instruments being that directives must be transposed into national law in order to be applicable in the Member State whereas regulations are binding for all Member States from their publication in the Official Journal of the EU, unless a Member State is expressly excluded
新规定将废除并取代2003年通过的 “招股说明书指令”(2010年修订)。这两个条例的主要区别在于“指令”必须转变为国家法律方可适用于成员国,而新规定则在《 欧盟官方公报》中发布后即对所有成员国均有约束力,除非明确排除某一成员国。
The majority of the provisions of the Prospectus Regulation will come into effect 2 years after the publication in the Official Journal of the EU, which occurred on 30 June 2017.
《招股说明书规定》的大部分规定将于2017年6月30日在《欧盟官方公报》发表之后的2年后生效。
Key changes
主要变化
- Companies will not be required to publish a prospectus for issuances under €1,000,000.
发行低于一百万欧元,公司无需发布招股说明书。
- Moreover, Member States may exempt from the obligation to publish prospectus offers of securities not exceeding €8,000,000 (but such exempted offers will not benefit from the pass porting regime under the Prospectus Regulation).
此外,发行不超过八百万欧元的证券,成员国可免除发布招股说明书的义务(但根据《招股说明书规定》的要求,这种豁免不会受益于通行证制度)。
- The EU growth prospectus, a new type of prospectus, will be available for SMEs, non-SMEs (when the securities that they offer are admitted to trading on an SME growth market) and unlisted companies with less than 500 employees (when issuing a reduced amount of debt or shares). The EU growth prospectus will be a standardised document which is easy to complete and that covers the key information of the issuer.
欧盟经济增长招股说明书是一种新的招股说明书,将适用于中小企业、非中小企业(当他们发行的证券被许可在中小企业成长市场交易时)和雇员人数少于500人的非上市公司(当发行缩减规模的债务或股份时)。欧盟经济增长招股说明书将是容易实施且涵盖了发行人关键信息的标准化文件。
- An annual universal registration document will also be created for companies that frequently access capital markets, reducing the deadline for approval of prospectuses from 10 to 5 days. Additionally, requirements for secondary issuance prospectuses will be reduced.
将为经常进入资本市场的公司创建年度通用注册文件,将招股说明书的批准期限从10天缩短至5天。此外,二次发行说明书的要求将降低。
- The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) will give free online access to the prospectuses approved in the European Economic Area for potential investors. Therefore, companies will not be required to publish their prospectuses in print unless requested by a potential investor.
欧洲证券及市场管理局(ESMA)将使潜在投资者能够免费在线访问欧洲经济区批准的招股说明书。因此,除非潜在投资者要求,公司将不需要发布纸质的招股说明书。
- While the new Prospectus Regulation tries to alleviate formal requirements for offers of securities, it also tries to enhance investors’ protection ensuring that all relevant information is available and that all information included in the prospectus is relevant. In this regard, risks factors described in the summary should be limited to those actually relevant and not simply general statements on investment risk.
新的《招股说明书规定》在试图减少证券发行的形式要求的同时,也试图加强对投资者的保护,确保投资者可以获得所有相关信息并且招股说明书中所载的信息均为相关信息。在这方面,摘要中所述的风险因素应限于那些切实相关的风险,而不仅仅是投资风险的一般性陈述。
Key contact:
主要联系人: