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Euronext will create a US-style single prospectus for companies raising money on its seven stock exchanges, aiming to make information more accessible to investors and kick-start Europe’s flagging fundraising market.
Executives at Europe’s largest stock exchange group will in the coming weeks develop a standardised form that can be used by companies looking to raise funds on its venues. The documents would contain key information for investors and be written in English, with an appendix in their local language, chief executive Stéphane Boujnah told the Financial Times.
Its move comes in response to growing concern among European policymakers at the region’s faltering capital markets. Politicians want to harmonise Europe’s fragmented markets, to attract investment and deter companies and capital from heading to the more active US equity market. Euronext’s aim is to create “one single form, an S1 type of document with one single template so that anyone in Europe in any [equity capital markets] desk, in any asset manager looking for info can go to the same thing,” said Boujnah, referring to the forms companies file with regulators when registering new securities in the US.
Although many European stock markets have hit record highs this year, fundraising in the EU remains comparatively low. New listings and secondary share sales have raised $52.5bn so far this year, a 16 per cent rise on 2023. But US IPOs and share sales have raised $183.6bn, up 62 per cent in the same period, according to Dealogic data. Many have argued a key difference is the US’s simpler and more unified capital market, which has fewer clearing and settlement houses — as well as legal structures and languages....
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