EU Listing Act - bull or bear?

Abstract

The goal of the EU Listing Act is to make public capital markets in the EU more attractive for companies and facilitate access to capital. The legislative package, consisting of one regulation and two directives, includes a new Multiple Voting Rights Directive (MVRD) and brings a number of significant changes to the Prospectus Regulation (PR), the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II); moreover, it repeals the Listing Directive. This paper provides an overview of the most important contents and examines whether and to what extent they are actually suitable for achieving the desired outcomes. In addition, it takes a look at the (intended) implementation in Germany.

Keywords: MVRD, prospectus, PR, market abuse, ad hoc disclosure, MAR, MiFID II, Listing Act, multiple voting rights, multiple-vote shares, inside information, Listing Directive

JEL Classification: K20, K22