Mazars leader calls for more SMILEs
Adapting Europe’s financial and regulatory
environment to give SMEs greater access to capital, allowing them
to use IFRS for SMEs and making it easier to list on public markets
are three key recommendations in a new report commissioned by the
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde.
Written by Mazars global director of capital
markets Fabrice Demarigny, An EU-Listing Small Business
Act calls for the creation a Small Business Act (SBA) by
European Financial and Banking Law.
The report introduces the concept of SMILEs
(Small and Medium-sized Issuers Listed in Europe) and suggests ways
to make it easier for SMILEs to access finance and offer new legal
possibilities for public floatation.
The law would apply to companies whose IPO
transaction was less than €75 million ($101 million).
These changes to the SME sector could provide
a significant new revenue stream to accounting firms, which could
benefit from increased fees derived from SMILEs seeking capital and
getting assistance for IPOs.
More listed companies would also mean more
mandatory auditing requirements. This would be particularly welcome
in France where small auditors fear the introduction of audit
thresholds could rob them of statutory work.
The report also proposed letting SMILEs,
admitted to trading on a regulated market, use IFRS for SMEs to
present their financial statements, instead of full IFRS.
Related links
AN EU-LISTING SMALL
BUSINESS ACT: Establishing a proportionate regulatory and financial
environment for Small and Medium-sized Issuers Listed in Europe
(SMILEs)
Mazars