On April 21, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) approved, with immediate effectiveness, the proposal filed by the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) to permit a longer period of time for NYSE-listed companies to regain compliance with the exchange’s continued listing standards by tolling the applicable compliance periods through June 30, 2020. The relief approved by the SEC is similar to the relief provided last week to Nasdaq-listed issuers as we previously blogged. The NYSE’s continued listing standards require that companies (i) have either stockholders’ equity of at least $50 million or an average global market capitalization over a consecutive 30 trading day period of at least $50 million and (ii) maintain a minimum average closing price of at least $1.00 over a consecutive 30 trading day period. This temporary relief allows companies that are out of compliance with the NYSE’s price-based requirements additional time to regain compliance. However, throughout the tolling period, the NYSE will continue to notify companies of new instances of non-compliance. The NYSE will also continue to attach a .BC indicator to the tickers of companies that fall below the continued listing standards during the tolling period. Companies that are notified about non-compliance are required to make a public announcement disclosing receipt of the notification by filing a Form 8-K with the SEC or by issuing a press release notwithstanding the tolling period. Starting on July 1, 2020, companies would receive the balance of any pending compliance period in effect at the start of the tolling period to come back into compliance with the applicable NYSE requirement. This relief is in addition to the ongoing temporary suspension of the NYSE’s $15 million market capitalization standard through June 30, 2020 that was previously approved by the SEC.

See the SEC’s approval.

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