By Richard Naish, Daniel O’Gorman

New rules in the Conduct of Business Sourcebook took effect in July leading to significant changes in the timing, sequencing and documents required in the UK IPO process. Guidance has now been published outlining how syndicate banks can facilitate access to prospective issuers for unconnected analysts.

As reported in our June edition of Corporate Matters, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has introduced new rules in its Conduct of Business Sourcebook (COBS). The aim of the new rules is to improve the range, quality and timeliness of the information that is made available to market participants during the initial public offering (IPO) process. The new rules apply to all IPOs where shares are admitted to trading on a regulated market in the UK (and therefore do not apply to IPOs on AIM or other multilateral trading facilities).