In a bid to deepen regulatory transition, further optimize self-discipline rules for information disclosure and enhance its regulatory efficiency, Shenzhen Stock Exchange recently completed the amendments to Information Disclosure Memos for Companies Listed on the Main Board, which has been promulgated in the Special Business Zone today.
It is learned that 12 memos of the 33 original applicable memos for information disclosure and 7 memos for new accounting standards have been included in the SZSE Guidelines on Standard Operations for Companies Listed on the Main Board (revised in 2015), which has come into force on March 20 2015, and the remaining 28 memos have been integrated into 7 memos for disclosing information on the Main Board.
The true, accurate, complete, timely and fair information disclosure by listed companies lays foundation for the health running of the capital markets, said by an officer of SZSE. In order to solve the prominent problems in information disclosure by listed companies, SZSE has formulated and implemented a lot of memos, which have played an irreplaceable role in the supervision work as an important part of the self-discipline rules system of SZSE. With the rapid development of the markets, the scattered and fragmented memos have imposed too many restrictions on information disclosure. Based on the reasonable opinions and suggestions collected in the previous activities, such as Listed Companies’ Open House Program and Securities Companies’ Open House Program, SZSE revised the Guidelines on Standard Operations for Companies Listed on the Main Board and started the amendments to Information Disclosure Memos.
The amendments are focused on the following aspects:
- first, restrictions on some information disclosure are loosened, including “abandonment of rights”, “providing of external financial aid” and “deposits, loans and other financial business with related financial companies”, and the independent judgment and disclosure requirements of the board of directors of listed companies is strengthened.
- second, some disclosure requirements are added, deleted or revised according to the multi-tier information disclosure regulation and the latest changes of relevant business rules of SZSE, enhancing the conciseness, readability and effectiveness of information disclosure.
- third, new disclosure requirements are added in a bid to reflect the new business and products emerging in the markets. For example, information of preferred stocks is required to disclose in periodic reports.
- four, the framework of the memos is determined according to two categories i.e. information disclosure by listed companies and regulatory businesses, and then the contents of chapters are set according to sub-categories of specific businesses. The memos basically cover the whole process of related businesses, which help listed companies to comprehensively and fully grasp the disclosure requirements on related businesses.
The SZSE officer said that with the development of IPO registration system reform and the deepening of two-way opening of the capital markets, higher requirements on the quality of information disclosure will be raised by the markets. SZSE will take the demands of investors as the guide, further improve the classification regulation, explore the industry-classified regulation, deepen the study on similarities and differences between domestic and overseas information disclosure rules, continue to perfect the information disclosure rules, explore to establish the new supervision mechanism in the course and afterwards, and put the regulatory concept centered by information disclosure into practice.
