When Lord Hill’s Listing review was announced towards the end of November we immediately identified the listing review as a unique opportunity to input fresh ideas about how markets function in the UK.
It has, of course, been a long term concern of the QCA that the UK’s public equity markets have been deemed less attractive by businesses. The main contributory factors have been increased regulation, increased availability of private equity (at a lower cost) and greater access to foreign markets for issuers. Evidence for this can be seen in the twenty year decline in overall listings.
Our response to the review presents the somewhat radical reforms needed to reverse that concerning, embedded, trend.
Primarily, the QCA is calling for the Standard Listing to be reinvented and be the place for a more flexible approach on policies such as free float and prospectus requirements. In doing so this new market would attract dynamic companies and investors that value agility, while keeping the more tightly regulated Premium Listing in tact for the lowest risk investors.
Please find here a brief presentation that provides an overview of our response. The full response can be found here.
