The Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted on April 10, 2020 the Regulation on the Procedure for Issuing Debt Securities (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 54/2020) which came into force immediately.
The Regulation simplifies the procedure for issuing corporate debt securities in the Republic of Serbia during the state of emergency declared in the Republic of Serbia amid COVID-19 crisis, as well as within the period of 180 days following the termination of the state of emergency.
The Regulation, therefore, simplifies the approval process before the Securities Commission for prospectuses for issues of corporate debt securities. A prospectus relating to debt securities issued by companies is drawn up as a single prospectus and it is not a requirement for such prospectus to include a summary.
It’s form and the minimum information to be included in prospectus will be regulated by the Securities Commission bylaw within the 15 days period starting from the day of the Regulation coming into force i.e. April 10, 2020.
The information about the issuer, information regarding financial and audit reports of the issuer may be incorporated in the prospectus by reference, provided that the information is made available in public registers and/or on the issuer’s website.
The prospectus includes: (i) the last Annual financial report and audit report of the issuer, as well as (ii) the last Annual report of the board of directors i.e. supervisory board and (iii) the Consolidated Annual financial report, in case the issuer is obliged by law to fill in these reports.
In case of successful issuance of corporate debt securities, the issuer is considered to have a status of public company for a period of a validity of the securities. If the issuer is a joint stock company, however, it’s stocks will not be included in the market solely on the basis of this regulation.