Bursa Malaysia will be shortening the timeframe for issuance of Annual Reports under the Listing Requirements. The changes would be introduced in phases to provide Public Listed Companies with time to prepare for and meet the new requirements.
Under the phased approach, Public Listed Companies are required to issue their annual reports for financial year ending on or after 31 December 2014, within 5 months from the close of the financial year. Following that, annual reports for financial year ending on or after 31 December 2015 must be issued within 4 months from the close of the financial year.
The new requirements were made following the public consultation paper issued on 31 May 2013 and the review undertaken by a taskforce established under the Corporate Governance Blueprint 2011 and consisting of representatives from the Securities Commission, Bursa Malaysia, Audit Oversight Board (“AOB”), selected industry associations and listed issuers. In finalising the requirements above, the Exchange took due consideration of the feedback and comments received from listed issuers and relevant industry associations pursuant to the public consultation paper.
“We believe that the new requirements are balanced and will achieve the objective of improving the timeliness of issuance of annual reports without unreasonably burdening the Public Listed Companies. At the same time, we will also be able to align our annual report issuance timeframe with practices in other markets”, said Bursa Malaysia Berhad Chief Executive Officer Dato’ Tajuddin Atan.
Further, in a move to facilitate compliance by Public Listed Companies with the shorter timeframe for issuance of annual reports, Bursa Malaysia has also:
- expanded the form in which annual reports can be issued, to any other electronic format other than CD-ROM; and
- removed the obligation for a listed issuer to give the Exchange 15 copies of the specified documents under the Listing Requirements (including annual reports) to promote greater efficiency and cost saving by listed issuers.
Apart from the annual reports, there is no change to the timeframe for issuance of quarterly reports and annual audited financial statements. Quarterly reports and annual audited financial statements will continue to be issued within 2 months from the end of the quarter and 4 months from the close of the financial year respectively.