Bursa Malaysia Seeks Public Feedback On Proposed Rule Amendments To The Main Market And ACE Market Listing Requirements

Bursa Malaysia Berhad (“Bursa Malaysia” or the “Exchange”) today issued a consultation paper seeking public feedback on the proposed amendments to the Main Market and ACE Market Listing Requirements (collectively “Listing Requirements”) in relation to the new issue of securities and other areas. The proposed amendments are part of the Exchange’s continuous efforts to ensure a balanced regulatory framework that provides adequate levels of investor protection while ensuring that it does not result in burdensome compliance costs nor impede ease of doing businesses and growth.

The key proposed amendments include the following:

a. Enhancing requirements for the new issue of securities to facilitate better understanding of corporate proposals by shareholders, promote greater business efficacy for listed issuers and strengthen investor protection, such as the following:

enhancing the presentation and contents of announcements and circulars by clustering information for better flow and requiring value-add disclosures;
allowing the announcement of the issue price for shares from Dividend Reinvestment Schemes at a later date, i.e. before or on the books closing date to better reflect the market price of the listed securities; and
imposing a limit to an exercise or conversion of convertible equity securities, (i.e. not exceeding 50% of the total number of a listed issuer’s issued shares) to mitigate the dilution effect to shareholders.

b. Addressing gaps and enhancing board integrity for greater shareholder protection and confidence through the following:

enhancing transparency on material loan covenants, conditions or restrictions linked to controlling shareholders;
enhancing transparency and regularisation requirements for unlisted subsidiaries or associated companies undertaking corporate rescue mechanisms under the Companies Act 2016; and
strengthening the definition of independent directors.

The consultation paper is available at www.bursamalaysia.com. Interested parties are invited to submit their comments and feedback to Bursa Malaysia by 31 October 2019.