ESMA Consults On Draft Guidelines On Alternative Performance Measures

ESMA published for consultation its draft guidelines on alternative performance measures ("APMs") on 13 February 2014, used by issuers in any of their public regulatory (e.g. financial) disclosures. These are aimed at ensuring that issuers who provide APMs do so in a way that is appropriate and useful for users' decision-making. The proposed guidelines are based primarily on, and will replace, the Committee of European Securities Regulator's ("CESR") Recommendation on Alternative Performance Measures, which has been in force since October 2005.

For the purposes of the guidelines, ESMA considers APMs to be any numerical measure of historical, current or future financial performance, which relates to the issuer's financial position, comprehensive income or cash flows, and which is not a measure defined by the applicable financial reporting framework. The proposed guidelines will apply to issuers whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market and