Friday, February 17, 2012

IPO Bill to Open up capital markets for Small Business

Yesterday, the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) voted in a dramatically bipartisan manor in favor of H.R. 3606, the “Reopening American Capital Markets to Emerging Growth Companies Act of 2011.” The vote to move this legislation forward to the full House for consideration was 54-1.
This legislation provides a regulatory on-ramp for emerging growth companies seeking to go public on the U.S. market and allows these companies to better communicate with potential investors pre- and post-IPO. The NVCA has long supported this bill - as well as the Senate version, S. 1933, and we expressed this support jointly with the NYSE in a letter to the HFSC Chairman Bachus and Ranking Member Frank, sent yesterday. Of particular note, we applaud the bipartisan approach and leadership shown during the Committee process by Congressmen Stephen Fincher (R-TN) and John Carney (D-DE) on the bill, which was reflected in the nearly unanimous vote of approval. We remain extremely encouraged by the strong and growing bipartisan support for this bill and hope the full House will quickly add its weight behind this measure.
As mentioned, S. 1933, introduced by Senators Schumer (D-NY), Toomey, (R-PA) Warner (D-VA) and Crapo (R-ID) is under consideration by the Senate Banking Committee. We hope that yesterday's strong action will encourage that committee to also move forward expeditiously.
As the venture-backed IPO market remains slow in terms of volume in 2012, we believe that these bills will encourage more companies to pursue an IPO without sacrificing investor safety or confidence. We will keep you apprised of all developments here at NVCAccess.
IPO Bill HR 3606 Passes House Committee