The Warsaw Stock Exchange Management Board has decided that only those companies whose average share price in the last three months was lower than PLN 0.50 will continue to be classified in the Alert List segment. The planned increase of the threshold of classification in the Alert List to PLN 1 as of the end of December 2014 has not been executed.
“The decision to maintain the existing penny stock threshold has been made following an analysis of the market which suggests that stricter classification criteria whereby companies with a share price between PLN 0.50 and PLN 0.99 would be included in the Alert List would be too restrictive in the context of the purpose of the regulation,” said PaweÅ‚ Tamborski, President of the Management Board of WSE.
The Exchange Management Board remains determined to eliminate the penny stock issue and therefore maintains a range of disciplinary measures and sanctions against companies classified in the Alert List.
According to the new Resolution, the consequences of classification of an issuer’s shares in the Alert List remain unchanged, including exclusion of the issuer’s shares from index portfolios, transfer of the shares to the single price trading system, special designation of the issuer in the exchange’s information services, and removal of the shares from the list of securities available for short selling.
As of 2015, companies on the Alert List will pay additional quarterly fees at 10 percent of the annual fee.
If the reasons for the classification in the Alert List persist, the Exchange Management Board will suspend and then delist the issuer’s shares on the exchange.
Detailed information is available in the consolidated text of the Resolution concerning separation of the regulated market segment ALERT LIST and the terms and procedures of classification in the segment – Appendix to Resolution No. 1218/2014 of the Warsaw Stock Exchange Management Board dated 31 October 2014. The Resolution is posted on the website: http://www.gpw.pl/komunikaty_en/?ph_tresc_glowna_start=show&ph_tresc_glowna_cmn_id=54363