Consultation paper: Recognition of overseas regimes – proposed exemption relief

First published 17 December 2015

We are consulting on possible exemptions for overseas issuers and overseas FMC reporting entities from:

• disclosure and governance requirements for ancillary or incidental offers made by issuers. These issuers would instead be required to comply with the requirements of their overseas jurisdiction 
• offer document information requirements to allow certain classes of issuers to use their overseas financial information and auditor in a PDS
• financial reporting and audit requirements to allow overseas FMC reporting entities to use their overseas financial statements and auditor as an alternative to New Zealand compliant financial statements and auditors
• disclosure, governance, financial reporting and audit requirements for overseas issuers in relation to securities already issued in reliance on exemptions from the Securities Act 1978 and the Financial Reporting Act 1993.

We would like your feedback on our proposals.

Submissions closed on Friday 26 February 2016. 

All comments should be submitted to [email protected] with the subject line: ‘Recognition of overseas regimes - proposed exemption relief: [Your entity name]’.  

Update

Monday 13 June

We have approved a series of class exemptions for overseas issuers which allow issuers making offers to New Zealand investors to rely on the disclosure, governance, financial reporting and audit requirements of their overseas jurisdiction where their regulatory standards are equivalent to New Zealand’s.

We plan to finalise these exemptions by the end of July 2016. Once the exemption notices are finalised, you will be able to find them on our website, and on the New Zealand legislation website.

This additional flexibility will encourage broader participation by overseas issuers in the New Zealand market, preserve appropriate access to information, and protect investors.