Retail Private Investment Market Opens Up for Ontario Investors as the Ontario Securities Commission Adopts Offering Memorandum Exemption

CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwired - Jan. 13, 2016) - Today, the Ontario Securities Commission officially adopted the Offering Memorandum (OM) Exemption, allowing the citizens of Ontario to enjoy the same type of alternative investment options that have been available to all other Canadians for decades.

Whilst alternative investment opportunities have long since been available to retail investors in all other provinces and territories in Canada, the opportunity to invest in small and medium private companies has historically been reserved for the very wealthy in the Province of Ontario. These investments are typically categorized by regulators as 'exempt market' securities, being that they are exempt from prospectus requirements. The change in Ontario will allow private stocks and private bonds to be sold to retail investors if an offering memorandum is provided.

The National Exempt Market Association (NEMA) and the industry supports this change. "After years of considerable effort and consultation with the Ontario Securities Commission, our industry is extremely pleased to see the adoption of the Offering Memorandum Exemption in Ontario. This will provide much needed access to capital for Entrepreneurs and simultaneously provide everyday Ontario citizens with access to alternative investments that have historically only been available to the wealthiest one percent of Ontario residents," stated NEMA President Craig Skauge, who has sat on the Exempt Market Advisory Committee of the Ontario Securities Commission for the past three years. NEMA's most recent issue of the Exempt Edge magazine, the industry trade publication, features expert commendatory on these new changes and what it will mean for investors, it can be read for free at www.nemaonline.ca.