Call to streamline company results announcements

Fund managers and analysts want the results of publicly-listed companies to be announced more promptly and before the opening of the Australian Securities Exchange, according to a new poll conducted by the Australasian Investor Relations Association (AIRA).  

The poll, the results of which were released today, prompted AIRA’s CEO Ian Matheson to claim that respondents had a clear message for publicly-listed companies - they prefer to read and analyse earnings numbers earlier in the day.  

He said this then enabled the fund managers and analysts during hectic profit reporting seasons to be better prepared before share trading commenced.  

Matheson pointed out that the ASX had recently changed its practice to enable more pre-opening announcements to be made, and some companies were taking advantage of the change.  

However he said that many others were retaining the practice of holding board meetings to sign-off on the profits results immediately before they were released publicly - even though new disclosure rules might no longer make this necessary.  

According to the AIRA survey, more than 61 per cent of respondents said it did not matter to them if a company made presentations about the results purely by webcast or conference call - as long as the investment community could still ask questions of the chief executive officer or the chief financial officer.  

“Clearly, analysts and fund managers are saying that it is a more efficient use of their time to hold these briefings virtually - by webcast or conference call,” Matheson said.

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