The Council of Ministers has approved a draft law introducing measures to support capital competitiveness.
The draft law is an organic reform with the aim of encouraging the listing of companies, spreading the shareholding of the Italian Stock Exchange, supporting companies that aim to grow and increase their competitiveness with recourse to the capital market.
The document simplifies the procedures for admission to trading, reduces the burden on companies wishing to list and extends the classification of "small and medium-sized enterprises" issuers listed shares, raising the maximum cap from €500 million to €1 billion. The draft law also reforms the regulation of issuers of widespread financial instruments and changes the rules on the liability of the placer and off-site offer.
The text also deals with the preparation of the financial statements, providing for the possibility, for companies with shares on multilateral trading facilities, to adopt international accounting standards. In order to facilitate the participation of institutional investors in regulated markets, the professional investor status under private law is extended to include private and privatised social security institutions. It also extends the possibility of access to the instrument "Assets relaunch", consisting of Deposits and Loans, to companies born from mergers or divisions but with certified financial statements and companies that have not suffered sanctions or convictions.
The draft law also introduces innovative rules on the conduct of shareholders' meetings of listed companies, the exercise of multiple voting rights and free float.