Friday, March 9, 1973
TWO PRIORITY LISTS FOR DRAFT COMPANY PROSPECTUSES
The Registrar of Companies, Mr. W. Hume, referred today to a statement
made by him on February 15, when he said that draft prospectuses received by
the Companies Registry would be given serial numbers and would be examined in
strict numerical order.
Commenting on this statement, Mr. Hume said that representations have
recently been made to the Commissioner for Securities by the chairmen of the
stock exchanges, who are concerned lest public offers for which dates have
been booked well in advance by the stock exchanges may be held up because of
the large number of private placements now in the course of preparation.
"The question was discussed by the Securities Advisory Council yesterday
morning", said Mr. Hume, "and I have accepted a recommendation of the Council
that I should in future maintain two separate priority lists, one for draft
prospectuses relating to public offers for which dates have been reserved by
the stock exchanges under an agreement reached with the Exchange Banks Association,
and one for draft prospectuses relating to any other public offers and all private
placements.
"Any draft prospectus on the first of these lists will take priority
over draft prospectuses on the second list."
"This means", added Mr. Hume, "that provided draft prospectuses relating
to public offers falling within the scope of the agreement mentioned above do
not exceed one in every 10 days, which it is understood will be the case, and
provided the conditions set out in my statement of February 15 are satisfied,
it should not take more than a few days to clear a draft prospectus relating
to such a public offer."