The Securities Commission (SC) has announced today an enhanced initial public offering (IPO) framework for listing on Bursa Malaysia’s Main Market.

This is to promote greater shared responsibility among key stakeholders involved in the submission of an IPO.

The SC said the new framework, which was also applicable for Reverse Takeover (RTO) submissions, would take effect on January 1 next year.

“Under this enhanced approach, the SC places greater emphasis on the shared responsibility among all stakeholders involved in the IPO application process.

“Applicants and all their advisers will play a greater role to ensure that relevant due diligence is properly conducted before the submission and that the governance standards of industry gatekeepers are maintained in order to facilitate greater efficiency in the approval process,” said the SC chairman Datuk Syed Zaid Albar.

One of the key features of the new framework is the introduction of a mandatory pre-submission holistic consultation between the SC and key stakeholders including the applicant, principal advisers, lawyers, reporting accountants and valuers.

“The mandatory pre-submission session will facilitate discussions of any material issues and concerns prior to the submission of IPO application,” it said.

The new framework will also provide for a longer exposure period of the draft prospectus until the date of registration of the prospectus, instead of the current 15-market-day exposure period.

The SC said this would enable greater public participation in providing feedback on the draft prospectus.

Besides that, it said the approved principal adviser and qualified senior personnel regime would be liberalised under the new framework.

This is to allow for a larger pool of qualified professionals to be involved in the submission of IPO or RTO applications to the SC.

This will be balanced with specific obligations on the principal advisers, the qualified professionals and other parties involved in the submission of applications to the SC.

To operationalise the framework, the SC revised the Licensing Handbook and incorporated the eligibility criteria of principal adviser and qualified person and requirements for recognition as a recognised principal adviser.