Continuous Disclosure and David Jones - compliance with obligations under the ASX listing rules

By Gavin Robertson

The single matter on which I am consulted most frequently is compliance by listed public companies with their continuous disclosure obligations under the ASX Listing Rules.

There are often difficult matters of judgment involved:

• Is the information price-sensitive? (Listing Rule 3.1)
• Even if the information is price-sensitive, would a reasonable person expect that it be disclosed, is information confidential, does the information concern an incomplete proposal or does it comprise matters of supposition, etc.? (Listing Rule 3.1A).
• If the information is required to be disclosed, how should it be presented so as to not mislead?

The difficulties involved in assessing these matters were demonstrated recently by two announcements made by David Jones Limited ("the Company" or "David Jones") to ASX on Friday, 29 June 2012.