OTC Markets Group News April 2014 OTCQB: Buil

OTC Markets Group News April 2014
OTCQB: Building America’s Venture Stage Marketplace

Public venture markets have long played an important role in fostering capital formation and the growth of early stage companies around the world. Since its launch in 1995, the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market has attracted nearly 3,000 venture stage companies which have raised in excess of £85.92 billion (USD $144.28 billion) in new and follow-on offerings. Many of these companies have graduated to the LSE’s Main Market. Likewise in Canada, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s TSX Venture Exchange continues to attract growing companies, particularly in the mining and energy sectors.

Until now, however, the U.S. has lacked a true venture stage marketplace for early and development stage companies. OTC Markets Group is looking to change that...

Last month, we announced changes to OTCQB® to make it a better venture stage marketplace. We introduced new standards to increase the transparency of OTCQB companies, including a minimum one penny ($0.01) bid price requirement and an annual CEO/CFO certification verifying a company’s profile, reporting standard, officers, directors and beneficial shareholders, total shares outstanding and other information. While we are removing sub-penny and bankrupt companies from OTCQB, we will be admitting venture stage companies listed on the AIM, TSX Venture Exchange and other qualified international exchanges that are current in their SEC Rule 12g3-2(b) reporting requirements.

Companies that comply with the new standards will benefit from trading on a better marketplace with other venture stage U.S. and international companies and receive premium corporate services to help them build visibility and improve transparency with investors.

Click here to read the full article.

Changes to the OTCQB Venture Stage Marketplace
We recently announced new eligibility requirements for OTCQB to make it a better venture stage marketplace for early stage and developing U.S. and global companies. Click here to learn more about the new OTCQB requirements.

Important dates to remember:

May 1, 2014:
• Companies that do not meet the minimum bid test ($0.01) will be downgraded to OTC Pink
• Bankrupt companies will be downgraded to OTC Pink
• International Reporting companies on a Qualified Foreign Stock Exchange will be able to apply to trade on OTCQB

120 days after a company’s fiscal year end (FYE):
• OTCQB companies must comply with the OTCQB standards, starting with companies with a March 31, 2014 FYE
• Companies that do not comply with the new procedures within the required timeframe will be downgraded to OTC Pink

Prospective OTCQB companies as of May 1, 2014:
• Submit an application, pay the required fees and follow the new procedures in order to become traded on OTCQB
• New SEC registered or Bank Reporting issuers will not automatically trade on OTCQB

Please contact our Corporate Services team at issuers@otcmarkets.com or +1.212.896.4420 to learn more.