Taking Your Company Public — Part V

This final article in our Taking your Company Public series examines the issue of ongoing disclosure once your company is public. In the four previous articles, we discussed the pros and cons of entrepreneurial companies "going public" (essentially, becoming companies that sell their shares into the public market, by having their shares trade on a stock exchange) and the exercise of becoming a public company (focussing largely on the importance of the prospectus as a means of informing the investing public about your company).

Continually Disclosing

Once your company is public, the disclosure does not end — indeed it is ongoing and quite rigorous. First of all, if your shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, like clockwork, you have to publish your unaudited quarterly financial statements within 45 days after the end of each of your fiscal quarters, and your audited annual financial statements within 90 days after the end of your fiscal year. If your