The Quoted Companies Alliance has set up a petition for a working group to design an appropriate structure for UK equity markets on the 10 Downing Street website. If you support it, please click here to add your name to the petition by the deadline of April 11th.
We request that the Government set up a working group to design an appropriate structure for equity markets. There are a series of measures being promulgated that will greatly affect how the UK’s markets function, including the Prospectus Directive (for companies wanting to raise public money); the FSA's introduction of Standard Listings for UK companies; and confusing tax rules for CGT taper relief, SIPPs, VCTs, EIS and IHT relief. These could lead to a situation that significantly impairs the attractiveness of the UK’s dedicated growth markets (AIM and PLUS-quoted), where smaller companies currently go to seek vital funds, at a time when banks are reluctant to lend to them.
Background
The Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) has called on the Government to set up a working group to design an appropriate structure for UK equity markets in response to a series of measures that threaten their structure and operation. Together, the proposals could significantly harm the attractiveness of the UK’s dedicated growth markets – AIM and PLUS- quoted – where smaller companies currently seek vital funds, at a time when banks are reluctant to lend to them. The QCA, the representative body for the UK’s small and mid-cap quoted companies, has written to Chancellor Alistair Darling, highlighting a lack of strategic coordination and the danger to equity markets for smaller companies that are essential to the UK economy. The measures include:
1. The Prospectus Directive – Changes to the Directive would restrict the European Commission’s much-needed concessions for smaller companies raising public funds, to those companies on the Official List, excluding those on exchange-regulated markets. This would create a more onerous public fundraising regime for AIM and PLUS-quoted companies than those on the Official List. While the Commission has suggested that the concessions could be extended once the Market Abuse and Transparency Directives apply to exchange-regulated markets, this would take years to achieve, by which time the damage will be done. The QCA has asked the Chancellor to support its call for the European Commission to accelerate its Market Abuse and…
