"Increasing Listing Review Speed"... Exchange Separates Technical Special Case Company Reviews

Improvement of Review Procedures and Workforce Reinforcement "Expected Enhancement of Review Quality"

The Korea Exchange is promoting a plan to separate the review of technology-special listing applications from general applications to resolve delays in preliminary listing reviews.

Korea Exchange, Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

On the 27th, the Exchange announced that it will implement measures such as specialized reviews and improvements in review procedures and practices to resolve delays in preliminary listing reviews caused by the recent increase in technology-special listing applications.

Technology-special listing applications require additional procedures such as expert meetings compared to general companies, and it takes a long time to review due to difficulties in applying judgment criteria.

According to the newly prepared plan, the Exchange intends to completely separate the reviews of technology-special companies and general companies to improve review efficiency and strengthen expertise.

The Technology Company Listing Department will establish an industry-specialized review system by team, promoting the establishment of review standards reflecting industry characteristics and the advancement of review techniques.

In addition, the Exchange will estimate the time required to resolve review issues and prioritize processing companies that can be handled first regardless of application order, while for cases where issue resolution is expected to be difficult in the short term, the principle is to process within the minimum period rather than prolonging the review.

Furthermore, by activating prior consultations with underwriters, major issues will be discussed in advance, and companies will be encouraged to apply for listing after resolving review issues. To quickly resolve review delays, a special review task force (TF) will also be established, and additional review personnel will be assigned.

However, the review standards will be maintained as is to ensure that measures to resolve listing review delays do not lead to a deterioration of investor protection functions.

Hong Sun-wook, Head of the KOSDAQ Market Division at the Korea Exchange, said, "The review period could be shortened by about 20%," adding, "We will strive to comply with the rule of completing reviews within 45 business days for currently stalled listings."

The Exchange also plans to improve the system to prevent recurrence of cases such as the recent cancellation of preliminary review approval for Innogrid's KOSDAQ market listing. Head Hong said, "Under the current system, there is no way for the Exchange to know about this incident in advance," and added, "We need to create a system that can filter out problems beforehand."

The Exchange plans to hold an investment banking (IB) meeting next month to gather opinions for system improvements.

Lee Chung-yeon, Executive Director of the KOSDAQ Market Division, said, "We will listen to opinions on how much can be supplemented to confirm important matters in advance," and added, "We plan to prepare guidelines through sufficient communication with underwriters."