A move long awaited.

THE move to simplify Bursa Malaysia's listing requirements is good for the market and will bring Malaysia's equity guidelines in line with those of regional bourses.

COME AUGUST, BURSA MALAYSIA WILL MERGE its Main and Second Boards.

Under the reforms, companies listed on the two boards will be migrated to a new unified board to be known as the Main Market, while those on the Mesdaq market will be subsumed into the ACE Market.

The reforms, first announced in March last year by the then Prime Minister Datuk Seri (now Tun) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, are aimed at allowing more efficient access to capital and investments.

Much has been simplified under this new framework. Companies seeking to list under the profit track record test will have to have an uninterrupted aggregate profit-after-tax of at least …