European Securities And Markets Authority Publishes Final Guidelines On Alternative Performance Measures

On October 5, 2015, ESMA published its final Guidelines on Alternative Performance Measures for listed issuers. An APM is a financial measure of historical or future financial performance, position or cash flow and is usually derived from financial statements prepared by an issuer. The Guidelines aim to assist users in making investment decisions and encourage European issuers to publish comparable, transparent and reliable information on their financial performance so that users can obtain a comprehensive understanding of their performance. The Guidelines apply to issuers with securities traded on regulated markets that are required to publish regulated information under the EU Transparency Directive, any persons responsible for drawing up a prospectus under the EU Prospectus Directive and relevant EU national regulators. The Guidelines will apply to APMs disclosed on or after July 3, 2016.