Thailand to adopt region's cross border securities offering standards

The decision was announced today at the Asean Capital Markets Forum (ACMF).

"I am proud of this achievement. The arrival of the fully harmonised set of disclosure standards simply proved that ACMF is determined to make fund raising process most efficient for companies looking to expand their businesses. It creates more opportunity for Asean to channel our savings to promote growth of our own region. I hope that, in the near future, more Asean securities regulators will join Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand in adopting the Asean Disclosure Standards, yet enlarging the impact of this Scheme." said Vorapol Socatiyanurak, Secretary-General of Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission.

Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand are the first three Asean jurisdictions to implement the Scheme. Other bourses can join when they are ready.

The scheme aims to facilitate fund raising activities as well as to enhance the investment opportunities within Asean capital markets. Issuers offering equity and plain debt securities in multiple jurisdictions within Asean will only need to comply with one single set of disclosure standards for prospectuses, known as the Asean Disclosure Standards, bringing about greater efficiency and cost savings to issuers. 

 It replaces the Asean and Plus Standards Scheme that was announced on June 12, 2009 and is one of the capital market initiatives undertaken by the ACMF as part of the regional capital market integration plan endorsed by the Asean Finance Ministers in April 2009 in Pattaya, Thailand.

 "The implementation of the Scheme is another significant achievement in the ACMF's continuing efforts to foster Asean capital market integration. With the Scheme in place, issuers will only need to prepare one set of prospectus for a multi-jurisdiction offering in the region. The ACMF hopes that this will encourage more companies to offer securities across Asean and help promote Asean as integrated capital market for fund-raising," said Lee Chuan Teck, chairman of the ACMF and Assistant Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

To Ranjit Ajit Singh, chairman of the Securities Commission Malaysia, the initiative represents a significant milestone towards creating a more efficient environment for access to capital across the region, and is a key initiative by Asean capital market regulators to promote greater cross-border investment flows and grow the region's capital markets. 

"The fully harmonised disclosure standards will allow issuers more seamless access to financing opportunities within the region while facilitating investors' decision making in multi-jurisdiction offerings."-The Nation (April 01, 2013)