new Equity Crowdfunding law

Federal parliament approved a modified version of the Equity Crowdfunding Bill first put forward in November 2015.

The bill ushers a new, regime for Public companies to fundraise small amounts from retail investors via approved AFSL holding intermediaries.

The key differences between this and the existing class order exemptions;

• unlimited retail investors
  
• anti hawking relief
  
• additional offer template requirements
  
• limited to ordinary shares
  
• liquidity, risk, platform and dilution warnings
  
• online forum (even when offer suspended)
  
• fee disclosure and identity checking
  
• public company (with 5 year sunset on some governance obligations)
  
• retail investors limited to 10k per company
  

For many retail investors this will be the first time they have access to offers that have been traditionally reserved for exempt investors, affiliates or employees.

Congratulations to the minister for personally championing the bill to fruition, and we trust that further progress will be made in regards to the SME friendly version currently under review.

Lets crowdfund Equity in 2017!