NZX has finalised its updated market structure and listing rules, completing the first holistic review of the rule set in 15 years.
The changes support NZX’s commitment to create a rule set that promotes market development and assists in the listing of a broader range of financial products for New Zealanders.
NZX will move to one equity board on 1 July 2019. This was strongly supported by the market and results in one rule set for all equity issuers. Settings for smaller issuers have been carefully considered to ensure listing remains a viable option for these issuers.
A bespoke set of fund rules will be introduced, designed to significantly reduce the cost of listing for these issuers.
A number of changes have been made to keep building momentum in the debt market, including removing unnecessary compliance costs and improving speed to market for further capital raisings. A wholesale debt market will also open on 1 January 2019.
All rules are now presented in a user friendly format and in plain English to improve usability.
NZX General Counsel and Head of Policy Hamish Macdonald commented: “The listing rules are an important connection to our current and prospective customers. Core to these changes was the aim of making it easier for companies to list equity, funds and debt, while making it simpler and faster for our current customers to raise further capital and funding.”
“We received excellent engagement during this review. The changes deliver on this feedback, and improve our customer offering. Today marks the completion of a significant deliverable for NZX and New Zealand’s broader capital market.”
The updated rules, which include an explanatory paper, can be found at the link below, together with a Q&A document providing further detail on the changes and transition plans:
https://www.nzx.com/regulation/nzx-rules-guidance/nzx-listing-rules-review
