In an effort to streamline the public offering process for listed companies with good corporate governance records, the SEC has proposed a set of new rules that will be subject to public comment until 19 May.

Under the new rules, those listed companies with good corporate governance records would benefit from a shorter 14-day consideration period (running concurrently with the cooling period), a waiver of the filing fees, and the ability to prepare the public offering application and registration statement without the assistance of a financial advisor.

Only certain public offerings will qualify for the new fast track rules, including offerings that are priced at least 90% of the company’s market price and where the proceeds would not be used for large scale projects requiring shareholder approval.

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