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ARTICLE · 05 JANUARY 2010

Legal update: Handling Confidential Information

Norton Rose Fulbright Australia
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On 21 December 2009, ASIC released its consultation paper on proposed best practice guidelines for the handling of confidential information in corporate transactions. The guidelines are aimed specifically at capital raisings and mergers and acquisitions.

AustraliaCorporate/Commercial Law
Shane Bilardi
Shane Bilardi
Fleur Shaw-Jones
Fleur Shaw-Jones
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Purpose

ASIC states that the guidelines are designed to help companies, advisers, investment banks and other service providers raise the standard of their internal policies and procedures for the handling of price-sensitive confidential information, so as to reduce the occurrence of market sensitive leaks. However, it is also apparent that the guidelines are intended to create documentary records to allow investigation of leaks and insider trading by ASIC.

Background

The proposed guidelines are the result of ASIC's Confidential Information Project, which identified a number of abnormal stock trading and media leaks immediately prior to announcement of transactions. ASIC is concerned to ensure price-sensitive and confidential information is not misused and is communicated equally to all market participants.

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