Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Europe Wins Another

From high fashion to high tech, businesses continue to find America's public securities markets to be a very expensive place to do business. This week brings news that Tommy Hilfiger Corp., which left the New York Stock Exchange to go private in 2006, may go public again, this time on the Amsterdam exchange. Since both exchanges are now part of the combined NYSE Euronext, you might say this is a vindication of new Merrill CEO John Thain's strategy when he led the NYSE. But it's also another warning about the competition facing American capital markets.

Kate Mitchell of Scale Venture Partners says that even start-up companies are spending up to $3 million per year to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley in preparation for going public. "We're at the point of overkill," she notes, adding that regulation has changed the message her companies hear from investment banks. "When we get pitches for IPOs, they always bring into the mix European exchanges, Asian exchanges, even the Canadian exchanges . . . Five or 10 years ago, we never heard that."

Europe Wins Another

Labels: EU

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Monday, April 16, 2007

Sarbox changes welcomed but imitators abound

arewell, Hotel California. This week's decision by US regulators to make it easier for foreign companies to escape Sarbanes-Oxley when they delist from a US stock exchange will be welcomed by many companies that had complained the rules meant you could – in the words of the Eagles song – "check out any time you like, but you can never leave".

But is Sarbox all bad? The US has sustained a barrage of criticism for introducing a law, whose Section 404 provision on internal and auditor checks was seen as one of the most intrusive, and costly, measures ever foisted on corporate executives.

Sarbox changes welcomed but imitators abound

Labels: Austrailia, Brazil, Canada, EU, France, Hong Kong, internal control, Mexico, sec 404 sox

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