Securities Commission Malaysia announces enhanced general mandate for pro rata rights issue to expedite secondary fund raising for eligible listed issuers

26 November 2020

On 10 November 2020, the Securities Commission Malaysia (“SC”) announced a temporary relief measure allowing eligible listed issuers to obtain mandated shareholder approval at a general meeting to undertake rights issue exercises. This temporary flexibility will be introduced via an enhanced rights issue framework which allows public listed companies and real estate investment trusts to issue new rights shares or units to their existing securities holders on a pro rata basis, up to 50% of the total number of issued shares or issued units.

The rights issue exercises implemented with mandate obtained under the temporary relief measure will be subject to certain conditions such as the rights issue must be a plain vanilla issuance that can only be utilised for ordinary shares or units and not any other types of securities such as warrants or convertible shares. This new general mandate for rights issued is in addition to the enhanced 20% general mandate for the issue of new securities, commonly utilised for private placements. Both relief measures are valid until 31 December 2021.