FTSE Meets Tuesday To Discuss Minimum Free-float Requirement
14 12월 2011 - 2:12AM
Dow Jones News
The policy committee of index provider FTSE Group is meeting
Tuesday to determine whether the group should enact a minimum 25%
share free-float requirement for U.K.-registered companies on its
U.K. indexes, the index provider's Chief Executive Mark Makepeace
said.
The meeting comes amid growing concerns that a growing number of
companies have been allowed to enter the indices with free floats
that are smaller than the U.K. regulatory minimum 25% free float
requirement.
The FTSE policy changes are expected to be announced as early as
Wednesday and would require companies that have less than a 25%
free float to either raise their free float to the required
threshold or lose their index status within 12 months to 24 months,
two people familiar with the matter said.
The policy change would apply only to U.K.-incorporated
companies listed on the FTSE All-Share index, which includes
companies in the FTSE-100 index, the FTSE-250 index, and the
FTSE-350 index.
The five companies that would be affected by the policy changes
are Essar Energy PLC (ESSR.LN), Eurasian Natural Resources Corp PLC
(ENRC.LN), Evraz Group PLC (EVRZ.LN), Fresnillo PLC (FRES.LN), and
Ferrexpo PLC (FXPO.LN), the people familiar with the matter said.
All of them are U.K.-listed resource companies in the FTSE 100
index and are domiciled in the United Kingdom.
Fresnillo, Ferrexpo, and ENRC declined to comment on the
potential policy change. Fresnillo has a 22.9% free float, ENRC has
an 18.43% free float, and Ferrexpo has around a 36% free float,
according to calculations made by Dow Jones Newswires. One of
Ferrexpo's shareholders, which owns a 25% stake in the company, has
lent out 12% of its shares to banks for trading.
Alexander Frolov, the chief executive of Russian steelmaker
Evraz, which has a 24.8% free float, said, "it's not an issue" to
reach the new requirement.
A spokesman for Essar Energy, which listed in 2010 with slightly
less than a 24% free float, said it would "wait and see what FTSE
decides and then have internal discussions to see how we approach
any new resolutions."
The potential FTSE policy change, if enacted, may do little to
allay investor concerns that majority shareholders would still be
able to exert significant influence over a company's strategy if
desired.
"This is a half-way solution to a bigger problem with the
criteria for the admission to listing regime which resides with the
UKLA," said a spokesman for PIRC, a U.K. independent shareholder
advisory group.
The government's U.K. Listing Authority has a 25% minimum
free-float requirement for all companies seeking a premium London
listing but has in recent years granted waivers to companies that
have large market capitalizations.
The FTSE Group has a minimum 15% free-float requirement but is
willing to consider companies with a smaller free float for
inclusion in its indices if they have a free float above 5%, have
been granted a waiver by the U.K. Listing Authority and have a
market capitalization of more than $5 billion.
-By Alex MacDonald and Marietta Cauchi, Dow Jones Newswires; 44
20 7842 9328; alex.macdonald@dowjones.com
(Alexis Flynn in London contributed to this story.)
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