Bursa Malaysia today announced shortened time to market for subdivision of shares, share consolidation and bonus issue exercises (“SPEEDS”). The implementation of SPEEDS allows securities arising from certain subdivision or consolidation and bonus issue exercises (“SPEEDS Corporate Exercises”) to be traded on the next market day after the Books Closing Date instead of the current time frame of 6 to 10 market days after the Books Closing Date. This new initiative also enables continuous trading for securities undergoing subdivision or consolidation. Currently, securities undergoing subdivision or consolidation are suspended for a period of 10 market days prior to the listing and quotation of the new subdivided or consolidated shares.
“A process improvement was made primarily to achieve a shorter time-to-market for SPEEDS Corporate Exercises with uninterrupted trading leading to greater efficiency and reduction in investors’ market risk exposure”, said Dato’ Yusli Mohamed Yusoff, CEO of Bursa Malaysia Berhad.
“The implementation of SPEEDS will not only benefit listed companies but also promote investor’s confidence in the quality and integrity of our market. With SPEEDS, Bursa Malaysia will be on par with other jurisdictions within the Asia Pacific region in handling such corporate exercises,” he added.
Below is an overview of the timeline for the SPEEDS Corporate Exercises prior to and upon the implementation of SPEEDS:
| Activities |
Current
Subdivision of Shares timeline |
Current Share Consolidation timeline | Current Bonus Issue timeline | SPEEDS timeline |
| Announcement of
Books Closing Date (”BCD”) |
BCD - 10 | BCD - 10 | BCD - 10 | BCD - 10 |
| Trading suspension | From BCD - 4 | From BCD - 4 | N/A | N/A |
| Books Closing Date | BCD | BCD | BCD | BCD |
| Application for quotation | BCD + 4 | BCD + 4 | BCD + 8 | N/A |
| Quotation | BCD + 6 | BCD + 6 | BCD + 10 | BCD + 1 |
| No. of days the securities are suspended | 10 days | 10 days |
Nil (new securities can only be traded 10 days after BCD) |
Nil (new securities can be traded on BCD+1) |
In conjunction with the implementation of SPEEDS, amendments have been made to the Listing Requirements of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad and Rules of Bursa Malaysia Depository Sdn. Bhd. The amendments will take effect from 30 March 2007 and the SPEEDS timeline will be applicable to all SPEEDS Corporate Exercises for which announcements of the Books Closing Date are made on or after 30 March 2007.
The complete text of the amendments along with a set of frequently asked questions and answers on SPEEDS are available for reference on Bursa Malaysia’s website at http://www.bursamalaysia.com
