Atkins says IPOs declined from 4,000 in the 1990s to only 3,200 in the following 25 years.
“During the decade of the 1990s, there were approximately 4,000 IPOs. In the 25 years since then, there have been only 3,200.”
Atkins says public market benefits cannot be re-created privately and aims to extend them to more issuers.
“benefits that “simply cannot be re-created privately.” 1 This morning, I would like to focus on the Commission’s recent efforts to extend those benefits to a broader range of issuers”
Atkins states the SEC is simplifying registration and disclosure to let more companies go public.
“Under the leadership of Chairman Atkins, the Commission is proposing and adopting rules that simplify registration and disclosure requirements and allow more companies to go public with fewer unnecessary regulatory hurdles.”
Atkins says the SEC last seriously reviewed capital formation rules over twenty years ago.
“The Commission last took a hard look at improving the capital formation environment more than two decades ago.”
Atkins argues that complex market access rules without investor protection rationale serve no one.
“Labyrinthine restrictions on access to public markets unmoored from an investor protection rationale serve nobody.”
Atkins notes Form S-3 framework dates to 2005, before the iPhone existed.
“The framework we’re currently operating under mostly dates to 2005—before the iPhone had even been rolled out.”
Atkins says registered offering reform would increase eligible companies for shelf registration by over 60 percent.
“Registered offering reform would expand the full availability of shelf registration to nearly all public companies — including the newest and the smallest—increasing the number of eligible companies by over 60 percent.”
Atkins cites 40 percent decline in public companies over recent decades as rationale for returning to disclosure foundation.
“Presented with a 40 percent decline in public companies over the past few decades, we are summoned not to create more complexity nor reinvent our mandate, but to restore it to its foundation: that is, disclosure of material information.”
Atkins argues cumulative regulatory burden, not individual rules, drives companies to stay private.
“Often a single line item does not look unreasonable in isolation. The cumulative effect is what pushes companies to stay private, or to leave the public markets.”