Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Act”), and Rule 19b-4 thereunder, notice is hereby given that, on August 11, 2017, NYSE American LLC (the “Exchange” or “NYSE American”) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) the proposed rule change as described in Items I, II, and III below, which Items have been prepared by the self-regulatory organization. The Commission is publishing this notice to solicit comments on the proposed rule change from interested persons.
15 U.S.C. 78a.
I. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Terms of Substance of the Proposed Rule Change
The Exchange proposes to amend Section 146 of the NYSE American Company Guide (the “Company Guide”) to provide that companies initially listed on or after October 1, 2017 will not be eligible to receive corporate governance tools under the Exchange's services offering. The proposed rule change is available on the Exchange's Web site at www.nyse.com,, at the principal office of the Exchange, and at the Commission's Public Reference Room.
II. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change
In its filing with the Commission, the self-regulatory organization included statements concerning the purpose of, and basis for, the proposed rule change and discussed any comments it received on the proposed rule change. The text of those statements may be examined at the places specified in Item IV below. The Exchange has prepared summaries, set forth in sections A, B, and C below, of the most significant parts of such statements.
A. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and the Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change
1. Purpose
The Exchange proposes to amend Section 146 of the Company Guide to provide that companies initially listed on or after October 1, 2017 will not be eligible to receive corporate governance tools under the Exchange's services offering.
As set forth in Section 146, the Exchange currently provides Eligible New Listings with complimentary Web-hosting products and services (with a commercial value of approximately $16,000 annually), web-casting services (with a commercial value of approximately $6,500 annually), whistleblower hotline services (with a commercial value of approximately $4,000 annually), and news distribution products and services (with a commercial value of approximately $20,000 annually) and corporate governance tools (with a commercial value of approximately $15,000 annually) for a period of 24 calendar months. The Exchange's experience has been that companies that qualify as Eligible New Listings have generally not been interested in availing themselves of the corporate governance tools available as part of the services offering. As such the Exchange has decided to discontinue the corporate governance tool portion of its service offering for companies that list on or after October 1, 2017. Any company that is listed prior to October 1, 2017 will continue to be able to access corporate governance tools to the extent that they are eligible to do so under Section 146 as currently in effect.
For the purposes of Section 146, the term “Eligible New Listing” means (i) any U.S. company that lists common stock on the Exchange for the first time and any non-U.S. company that lists an equity security on the Exchange under Section 101 or 110 of the Company Guide for the first time, regardless of whether such U.S. or non-U.S. company conducts an offering, (ii) any U.S. or non-U.S. company that transfers its listing of common stock or equity securities, respectively, to the Exchange from another national securities exchange and (iii) any U.S. or non-U.S. company emerging from a bankruptcy, spinoff (where a company lists new shares in the absence of a public offering), and carve-out (where a company carves out a business line or division, which then conducts a separate initial public offering).
2. Statutory Basis
The Exchange believes that the proposed rule change is consistent with Section 6(b) of the Act, in general, and furthers the objectives of Section 6(b)(5) of the Act, in particular in that it is designed to promote just and equitable principles of trade, to foster cooperation and coordination with persons engaged in regulating, clearing, settling, processing information with respect to, and facilitating transactions in securities, to remove impediments to and perfect the mechanism of a free and open market and a national market system, and, in general, to protect investors and the public interest and is not designed to permit unfair discrimination between customers, issuers, brokers, or dealers. The Exchange believes that the proposed amendment is not unfairly discriminatory, as all companies listed on or after October 1, 2017 will continue to be eligible to avail themselves of the same services offering with the exception of the corporate governance tools offering which will be discontinued. It is not unfairly discriminatory to continue to offer corporate governance tools to companies listed prior to October 1, 2017, as that benefit was part of the services offering that was available at the time of those companies' initial listing and may have had some influence over their listing decisions.
15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(5).
B. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Burden on Competition
The Exchange believes that the proposed amendments to the Company Guide do not impose any burden on competition that is not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act. The proposed rule change does not impose any burden on competition, as all companies whose initial listing occurs on or after October 1, 2017 will be eligible for an identical services offering with the exception of the discontinued corporate governance tools.
C. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Comments on the Proposed Rule Change Received From Members, Participants, or Others
No written comments were solicited or received with respect to the proposed rule change.
III. Date of Effectiveness of the Proposed Rule Change and Timing for Commission Action
Within 45 days of the date of publication of this notice in the Federal Register or up to 90 days (i) as the Commission may designate if it finds such longer period to be appropriate and publishes its reasons for so finding or (ii) as to which the self-regulatory organization consents, the Commission will:
(A) By order approve or disapprove the proposed rule change, or
(B) institute proceedings to determine whether the proposed rule change should be disapproved.
IV. Solicitation of Comments
Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed rule change is consistent with the Act. Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:
Electronic Comments
- Use the Commission's Internet comment form ( http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml ); or
- Send an email to rule-comments@sec.gov. Please include File Number SR-NYSEAMER-2017-05 on the subject line.
Paper Comments
- Send paper comments in triplicate to Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street NE., Washington, DC 20549-1090.
All submissions should refer to File Number SR-NYSEAMER-2017-05. This file number should be included on the subject line if email is used. To help the Commission process and review your comments more efficiently, please use only one method. The Commission will post all comments on the Commission's Internet Web site ( http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml ). Copies of the submission, all subsequent amendments, all written statements with respect to the proposed rule change that are filed with the Commission, and all written communications relating to the proposed rule change between the Commission and any person, other than those that may be withheld from the public in accordance with the provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552, will be available for Web site viewing and printing in the Commission's Public Reference Room, 100 F Street N., Washington, DC 20549, on official business days between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Copies of the filing also will be available for inspection and copying at the principal office of the Exchange. All comments received will be posted without change; the Commission does not edit personal identifying information from submissions. You should submit only information that you wish to make available publicly. All submissions should refer to File Number SR-NYSEAMER-2017-05, and should be submitted on or before September 19, 2017.
For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated authority.7
Eduardo A. Aleman,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2017-18243 Filed 8-28-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011-01-P