SEC endorses new listing rules

In its efforts to reposition the capital market to attract new companies for  listing, the market, the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) has approved a new listing rules proposed by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). 

A statement issued by the NSE said “a fundamental requirement to drive these initiatives is a set of Listing Rules that are attractive to quality issuers on both the Main Board and the Alternative Securities Market (ASeM). 

Speaking on the new rules, the chief executive officer of the NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema said that the exchange embarked on reviewing the Listing Rules because some of the stakeholders of the exchange including prospects, listed companies, issuing houses, and brokers asserted that the Listings Rules of the NSE were inflexible. 

According to him, “the requirement that companies must have a five-year financial and operating track record has been cited as hindrance to many companies that would have been listed. Specifically, this is said to have led to the exclusion of some exploration and production companies, which are not in a position to provide such records.” 

 “Our research reflects that many leading exchanges have greater flexibility than we do, particularly on the quantitative requirements in the area of profit, market capitalization, price, public float, among others”. 

The General Manager, Listing Sales and Retention, Mrs Taba Peterside  also said the main board listing requirements for New York Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Singapore Stock Exchange, NASDAQ and other leading exchanges were reviewed vis-a-vis the Exchange’s, stressing that alternative board listing requirements for Alternext (New York Stock Exchange), AIM (London Stock Exchange), AltX (Johannesburg Stock Exchange), ACE (Malaysia Stock Exchange), Catalist (Singapore Stock Exchange )and other leading exchanges  were also reviewed vis a vis ASeM. 

  

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