MAS - Changes to Prospectus and Other Regulations

The Securities and Futures (Amendment) Act 2009 was passed by Parliament on 19 January 2009 ("SFAA") to amend the Securities and Futures Act ("SFA"). Following that, the Monetary Authority of Singapore ("MAS") issued a consultation paper on 16 April 2010 to invite comments on the proposed consequential amendments to the Securities and Futures (Offers of Investments) (Shares and Debentures) Regulations 2005 ("SFR"). The key proposed amendments to the SFR are summarised below.

Pre-deal research reports

An additional criterion for pre-deal research reports is proposed for insertion into regulation 15 of the SFR. This requires the person issuing a pre-deal research report to take reasonable steps to prevent leakage of information contained in the report to any person who is not an institutional investor. This additional criterion follows the proposed amendment to section 251(9)(g) of the SFA, which potentially allows the issue of pre-deal research reports for purely