Interim Management Statements no longer compulsory for London-listed companies
Published on 10th Nov 2014
As from 7 November 2014, it will no longer be compulsory for issuers admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange to publish interim management statements.
This change was confirmed by the Financial Conduct Authority on 7 November 2014. It results from the UK’s early implementation of the relevant part of EU Transparency Directive Amending Directive (the TDAD), which removes the compulsory requirement to publish interim management statements (IMSs). This part of the TDAD does not have to be implemented until November 2015, but the UK has gone for early adoption in pursuit of its deregulatory agenda.
As the UK is an early adopter, the abolition of compulsory IMSs only applies to issuers of shares admitted to trading on a regulated market where the UK acts as home Member State and the FCA’s Disclosure Rules and Transparency Rules apply. EU-wide abolition of the compulsory IMS will not be achieved until full implementation of the TDAD on a pan-EU basis in November 2015.
It will still be open for issuers to publish IMSs, or quarterly financial reports, on a voluntary basis. Many are expected to continue to do so, as they and the market have become accustomed to quarterly reporting. And for issuers with SEC reporting obligations in the United States, where quarterly reporting is the norm, there may be little reason not to continue to report quarterly in some form in London.
Source: FCA Policy Statement PS14/15.
