Companies listed on the prime market of the Vienna Stock Exchange may now choose whether or not to publish quarterly reports and in what form, after an amendment to market rules was introduced to free up reporting rules and allow reporting every six months.
Quarterly reports of market issuers on the exchange have been traditionally extensive compared with international standards, and this move brings the Vienna Stock Exchange in line with European stock exchanges such as Euronext, the London Stock Exchange and the SIX Swiss Exchange, which all give listed companies the freedom to choose their quarterly reporting policy.
‘Together with their investors, companies know best what information is required in their industry and which reporting frequency is the most useful, especially in seasonal sectors and for cyclical business models,’ says Christoph Boschan, CEO of the Vienna Stock Exchange, in a statement. ‘The message the Vienna Stock Exchange is sending is to look at the long-term horizon: investing is a marathon and not a sprint.’
Boschan notes that reporting requirements will not be compromised with this move, and companies listed in the top segment of the Vienna Stock Exchange are ‘highly transparent’ and ‘attuned to investors’. He adds that, within the prime market framework, they will ‘continue to fulfill strict requirements stipulated by law’ under the Austrian Stock Exchange Act.
After the move – which took immediate effect – was revealed on Friday, oil and gas company OMV (Austria’s largest listed company,), lender Raiffeisen Bank International, telecoms group A1 Telekom Austria and Verbund, the country’s largest utility firm, all announced they will still publish quarterly reports for the time being.
The EU’s European Transparency Directive set the course for the new system of reporting in 2013, stating listed companies need only publish half-yearly and yearly reports.
