Attractiveness of the Paris financial centre

Announced in late 2023, the Attractiveness Act is going forward, with MP Alexandre Holroyd recently submitting a bill that contains several significant amendments. AMAFI is especially pleased about the following measures:

• Efforts to make IPO rules more flexible by authorising shares with multiple voting rights. This measure was the subject of a Treasury consultation last March, to which AMAFI provided input (AMAFI / 23-22) and which anticipated the draft directive on the topic in the EU’s Listing Act package.
• Steps to relax the rules for capital increases without pre-emptive subscription rights, which address long-standing calls by AMAFI to scrap a uniquely French scheme.
• The ability for French-approved investment services providers to promote products traded on third-country venues to retail investors without having to apply for recognition of that market. Conversely, promotion by a third-country market operator targeting these investors would be subject to a recognition requirement.

Several amendments called for by AMAFI went unheeded, including the request to raise the capitalisation threshold below which listed companies are eligible for inclusion in small-business equity savings plans from EUR 1 billion to EUR 2 billion and to remove size requirements in terms of headcount, total assets and revenues. AMAFI will continue to lobby for these proposals during future legislative initiatives.