Public Companies and Equity Finance offers a clear and practical examination of the legal and regulatory framework within which public companies operate. The guide examines all aspects of the life of a public company, including the IPO, the regulatory regime, corporate governance issues and listed company transactions. Particular emphasis is given to those areas which, typically, junior lawyers will experience. Throughout the text, the lawyer's role is placed in context and attention is given to the roles of other advisers to public companies where relevant to the lawyer.

This new edition has been fully updated to cover all recent legislative and case law developments. It now covers all of the Companies Act 2006 provisions including the final tranche which came into force on 1 October 2009 covering company formation, a company’s constitution, re-registration as a public company, company meetings, issuing new shares and financial assistance. Changes made to the Companies Act 2006 by the new regime for rights issues and by the implementation of the Shareholder Rights Directive are also covered.

The book examines the new version of the Model Code introducing new rules governing trading plans (March 2009) and new versions of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (March 2009), the London Stock Exchange’s Admission and Disclosure Standards (April 2009) and the AIM Rules (June 2009).

Further updates to this new edition reflect the introduction of amendments made to the Listing Rules, Disclosure and Transparency Rules and the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Consideration has also been given to the current Walker review on corporate governance in the UK banking industry and the Financial Reporting Council’s review of the Combined Code.

New, topical examples of how the issues covered in this book affect real-life public companies and their directors are included throughout, including those provoked by the global financial, crisis particularly in the areas of secondary issues of shares and market abuse and insider dealing.

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