The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reducing the submission requirements of companies looking to raise funds publicly.
The SEC said instead of disclosing fiscal performance in the last three years as part of its offer prospectus, a company can now disclose just two of the past three years.
“For instance, financial statements for the year ended Dec.31, 2022 must contain line items showing comparative balances only for Dec. 31, 2022 and Dec. 31, 2021. In addition, the financial statements must contain line items for the comparative balances only for the fiscal years ended Dec. 31, 2021 and Dec. 31, 2020,” it said.
The SEC said the discussion of mitigating factors in the risk factors section of the prospectus will be optional for issuers.
The provisions are a revision of the implementing rules and regulations of the Securities Regulation Code released in 2015.
“The streamlined procedures are part of the Commission’s efforts to encourage more companies to tap the capital markets for their business expansion needs,” said Emilio Aquino, SEC chairman.
“The SEC will continue to find more ways to make the registration of securities and securing a license to sell such securities easier, which will also translate to more investment opportunities for the public,” Aquino added.
He said as part of efforts to ease the process of doing business in the capital market, the SEC recently shortened the settlement cycle of traded stocks to two days from the previous three days.
The SEC has authorized funding portals to act as registrars of qualified institutional and individual buyers, which eliminates the need for these portals to use third party institutions to assist potential investors with their applications as qualified buyers.
