Archive for December 9th, 2011

9 December 2011

The future of London’s IPO market: Recommendations from the London Stock Exchange

Paper on “Leadership in a global economy” adds to the debate about the health of the IPO markets

Recent weeks have seen various reports and initiatives on what can be done about the decline in the number of IPOs in the UK and the United States, which we’ve reflected in a number of posts including:

The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has now added to this debate with a paper on “The future of London’s IPO market”, which the LSEG describes as providing a “straightforward and unbiased analysis of the realities of the London listing environment” and contains “a series of recommendations for ensuring the continuation of London as the pre-eminent home for UK and international IPOs”.

The LSEG’s accompanying press release sets out those recommendations:

9 December 2011

Market abuse: Sunset clauses extended, and the FSA’s approach to insider trading

UK’s wider definition of market abuse will now last until 31 December 2014

HM Treasury confirmed yesterday that sub-sections (4) and (8) of section 118 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 will now expire on 31 December 2014 and not at the end of 2011. The statutory instrument to effect this extension is here and the accompanying explanatory memorandum is here.

Sub-sections (4) and (8) reflect the scope of the UK’s market abuse regime before the Market Abuse Directive (MAD) was implemented. When the MAD came into force, it was decided to retain these sub-sections but make them subject to sunset clauses dependent on a review of whether they remained justified.

These two sub-sections make the UK market abuse regime wider than that required under the Market Abuse Directive. The reasons for the wider UK regime are summarised in the Treasury’s impact assessment:

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