SOX Center

Two more UK companies have announced they will delist their shares from the New York stock market to avoid the burden of complying with legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Both United Utilities and ICI expect to cut their compliance costs by millions of pounds a year by dropping their secondary listings in the US.
Warrington-based United […]

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed by the US Federal Government in response to the Enron scandal in 2002 has caused BioProgress to delist from NASDAQ for the second time, adding to the register of European firms fleeing the US market.
Cambridge-based specialty pharma and healthcare company, BioProgress has announced its intention to delist from the NASDAQ stock […]

Sarbox ‘no longer makes sense from a cost and administrative perspective’ says chemical giant’s CFO as ICI prepares to leave New York Stock Exchange.
ICI is gearing up to leave the New York Stock Exchange to free itself from the blight of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
The company predicted a £4m annual saving from the de-listing based on the […]

Since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was adopted in 2002, non-U.S. issuers have become increasingly disenchanted with the regulatory burden of being listed on a U.S. stock exchange or otherwise having SEC reporting obligations. The most significant reason for non-U.S. issuers wanting to terminate their U.S. obligations is to avoid the internal control requirements under section 404 […]

Spirent Communications is dropping its New York listing because of the high costs of meeting the Sarbanes Oxley regulations on corporate governance.
The communications technology company said in a statement: “The US listing has become significantly more costly and onerous in recent years, not least due to the imposition of the Sarbanes Oxley regulations.”
The New York […]

US stock market regulation has little impact on where small companies decide to list their shares, according to a report from three North American academics. The widespread perception that the US’s Sarbanes-Oxley legislation is one reason why so many international companies have chosen to list in the UK is out of touch, the report argues.
Andrew […]

The U.S. and Europe should be able to achieve a single accounting standard by 2009, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Committee, Christopher Cox, said Sunday.
Cox was appearing on a panel at the German Marshall Fund Brussels Forum. In other comments, he said the SEC was proving able to modify the U.S.’s Sarbanes-Oxley legislation […]

Increased regulatory pressures and the fear of sanctions for failure to comply are making FTSE-350 FDs reluctant to relinquish control over sensitive finance and accounting functions
The burden of handling regulatory and compliance issues has become a major obstacle to outsourcing finance and accounting business functions, according to research among UK finance directors.
The survey of 50 […]

Telekom Austria, Vernalis Plan to Delist From U.S. Exchanges
European companies are already signaling their intent to take advantage of a pending change in rules that will let them easily cancel U.S. stock listings and escape the regulatory constraints of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Telekom Austria AG and Vernalis PLC, a […]

A new report into reporting and forecasting processes in European companies offers suggestions for improvement
What are the hot topics that finance directors are facing this year? In short, it’s people, performance and processes, in that order, according to recent research by BPM International, a network of business performance management consultancies, the UK arm of which […]