Clear All Year - Considering New Rules And Practice In Interim Reporting

For the last two years, the emphasis has been on providing more information in existing reports. Consequently, as Deloitte reported in October 2006, the average number of pages in a listed company’s annual report in 2006 was 85 compared to 71 in 2005. 2007 will see change in this trend. Instead of the rules simply calling for more information in existing reports, the cry will be more information and more reports.

The principal cause of the current changes is the implementation of the EU Transparency Obligations Directive (TOD) through amendments to the UK Listing Authority’s rules. The impact of the TOD includes:

• requiring fully listed companies to issue interim management statements (IMS) twice a year;