The Council of Agriculture (COA) has launched an initiative to assist agricultural technology companies and firms devoted to innovation in the agricultural sector to go public and gain access to capital markets.
According to the GRETAI Securities Market, the council outlined key points of the initiative last week to provide guidance for the market when evaluating the qualifications of agricultural enterprises applying for a public listing.
The guidelines identify -qualified “agricultural technology companies” as those that are involved in agricultural production or testing and research, have verifiable -agricultural-related output and have at least five full-time researchers.
They are also required to have spent at least 3 percent of net revenue or 5 percent of paid-in capital on research and development in the year preceding the application to go public, GRETAI said.
With the council’s approval, applicants would be able to go public without having to meet requirements on company age and profitability, it added.
The council expects the initiative to reduce the amount of time generally needed for applicant enterprises to go public by one to two years, it said in a statement on Friday.
The council said the new measure is part of a wider effort to help agricultural businesses gain easier access to the funding needed to upgrade their businesses and make their operations more sustainable.
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