By Amiti Rothstein and Howard Berkenblit
Effective April 16, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting related market conditions, Nasdaq is providing temporary relief from the continued listing bid price (i.e., the minimum bid price of a company’s listed stock) and market value of publicly held shares (i.e., stockholders’ equity) listing requirements by tolling compliance through June 30, 2020 (the “Tolling Period”) (see http://img.n.nasdaq.com/Web/GIS/%7B1b62f703-d510-4903-aab1-fd7993d5b2de%7D_SR-NASDAQ-2020-021.pdf).
During the Tolling Period, although Nasdaq won’t be starting the timeline for meeting compliance standards in accordance with its listing rules, Nasdaq will continue to monitor the bid price and market value of publicly held shares requirements and companies would continue to be notified about new instances of noncompliance in accordance with the current rules. The temporary relief provided by the Tolling Period is applicable for any company not currently in compliance with the minimum bid price and/or market value of publicly held shares requirements and not solely for companies who have failed to meet these requirements after the declaration of COVID-19 being a pandemic.
Immediately after the Tolling Period, starting on July 1, 2020, companies will receive the balance of any pending compliance period or hearings panel exception to regain compliance with the applicable requirement. Nasdaq has stated that it will continue to monitor securities to determine if they regain compliance during the relief period.
