ASIC has released Consultation Paper 126 Facilitating Debt Raisings to assist with the development of a sustainable listed corporate bond market in Australia.

The Consultation Paper proposes relief from long form prospectus requirements subject to the following conditions:

• the companies are listed and have a good continuous disclosure history – e.g. they have not been suspended for more than five days over a period of 12 months;
• the bonds offered are simple, vanilla bonds offered to retail and wholesale investors at the same price; and
• the size of the bond offer is at least $100 million to maximise the prospects of a liquid secondary market.

Comments are due by 19 February 2010.

ASIC has also developed a guide on investing in corporate bonds, which covers what corporate bonds are, how they work, what the risks are and provides a checklist of things to look for when investing.