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Bell Gully responds to MED's proposed Securities Regulations' changes
Bell Gully has responded to the discussion document titled 'Changes to the Securities Regulations' released by the Ministry of Economic Development in April 2009. (For an outline of the key changes proposed in the discussion document refer to the article Proposed securities law changes released – three weeks to have a say on our website.)
Bell Gully supports the objectives that are stated to underpin the proposals contained in the discussion document of improving and modernising securities disclosure obligations, reducing compliance costs and providing greater flexibility with respect to the content requirements for securities offer documents.
From our perspective however, the changes suggested in the discussion document are only satisfactory as a "stop-gap" measure pending a thorough review of the Securities Act disclosure regime which, we understand, is scheduled for later this year. Bell Gully strongly supports this comprehensive review of New Zealand's securities offer disclosure regime. We expect that such a review will consider a number of significant issues affecting securities offer disclosure in New Zealand, including:
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the need to move away from a prescriptive disclosure regime to that of an Australian-style full and fair disclosure regime; and
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the removal of duplicate disclosure by requiring both an investment statement and prospectus. We believe that the investment statement is something of a failed experiment in simplifying securities disclosure and its use should be discontinued.
To read Bell Gully's specific comments on the changes proposed in the discussion document, click here.
