Quebec Bourse supports a reduction of the regulatory burden for public companies

MONTRÉAL, QUÉBEC--(Marketwired - July 27, 2017) - Québec Bourse Inc. has submitted today its comments to the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) public consultation aiming at reducing the regulatory burden for public companies.

Stock exchange listed companies are key to our economy. They are subject to a complex regulatory framework which entails significant compliance costs. This is often raised as a major obstacle by companies contemplating an IPO.

We must take a close look at the current regulatory framework and the relevance and appropriateness of all the requirements. There is an urgent need to act if we want a dynamic, efficient stock market that can compete with the other available sources of capital and the early divestiture of companies.

There is a significant imbalance between the regulatory burden, compliance costs and investor protection. Obviously, investor protection must remain a priority. However, today's regulatory environment has resulted in an overload of information and documentation which does not necessarily serve investors well.

Our main recommendations include:

• An increase of the pool of issuers eligible to the streamlined rules;
• Providing the option to issuers eligible to the streamlined rules to adopt semi-annual financial reporting;
• Modernisation and lightening of prospectus disclosure requirements (reduction to two years of required audited financial statements, elimination of pro-forma financial statements).

About Québec Bourse:

Québec Bourse Inc. is an association regrouping Québec public companies and other stakeholders forming the public market ecosystem. Founded officially in 2016, Québec Bourse counts more than 90 members. Established as the voice of Québec's public companies and their key representative in dealing with regulatory and government authorities, Québec Bourse also aims among other things, to increase members' visibility, to foster collaboration, networking and exchange of best practices among members.