The new premium segment for bonds is designed to enhance transparency – benefitting especially private investors – as issuers agree to comply with more stringent reporting requirements. Furthermore, the new segment will only include bonds that meet certain criteria: the placement needs to be accompanied by a listing prospectus, the bond denomination cannot exceed EUR 10,000 and the minimum issuing volume is EUR 5 million.
"By introducing the corporates prime segment we want to make it easier for private investors to thoroughly research companies and thus make informed investment decisions. However, the new segment does not give any indication of the creditworthiness of the issuer," stressed Birgit Kuras, Management Board member of Wiener Börse AG.
Issuers that want to list their corporate bonds on the new corporates prime segment enter into an agreement under which they agree to comply with stricter transparency obligations, such as the disclosure of certain earnings indicators and a brief profile. During the bond duration, the issuer must submit financial statements, key indicators and any rating updates to the Vienna Stock Exchange without delay.
The Vienna Stock Exchange will also provide corporate prime issuers with more space on its website and make specific bond-relevant corporate ratios, company information and the listing prospectus available for download for the entire duration of the bond. The new segment is already being very well received by issuers – the corporate prime segment will start with 21 bonds and nine issuers.
Source: VSE
Impact on Investors: Enhanced transparency of certain companies that have issued corporate bonds should be enabled for investors.