Recent Developments
Borsa İstanbul A.Ş. (“Borsa Istanbul”) amended its Listing Directive (“Directive”) to increase liquidity for shares to be quoted on the Equity Market. The amendments were announced on February 12, 2021.
What Do the Amendments Say?
Pursuant to the amendments, the minimum market cap of shares to be offered to the public, which is one of the mandatory requirements for quotation, will increase to:
- TRY 300 million from TRY 200 million for the BIST Star Market;
- TRY 75 million from TRY 50 million for the BIST Main Market; and
- TRY 40 million from TRY 20 million for the BIST Sub-Market.
Furthermore, the minimum market cap of shares to be offered to the public for companies that cannot satisfy the minimum net profit and/or the minimum equity/share capital ratio will now be TRY 500 million. This threshold was previously TRY 250 million.
Accordingly, the Directive allows companies that cannot meet the minimum requirements to be listed on the Borsa Istanbul’s Star Market if
i. They meet the other Star Market listing conditions;
ii. They have recorded operating profits in the preceding financial year and the relevant interim period;
iii. The minimum market cap of shares to be offered to the public is at least TRY 500 million;
iv. The public offering also involves the issuance and offering of new shares (i.e., the issuer receives all, or at least, part of the offering proceeds);
v. The minimum equity/share capital ratio will be achieved with the proceeds of the issuer’s offering; and
vi. The board of the Borsa Istanbul approves the listing application by considering the issuer’s projections on operations, financial structure and use of proceeds generated from the offering.
Conclusion
In response to the recent popularity of public offerings and the increasing number of companies working to offer their shares to the public, the Borsa Istanbul has taken an early step to ensure that listed shares are fairly liquid and to prevent market manipulation over these shares due to their potential lack of liquidity.
