From next year the quarterly are retiring, or almost. All companies listed on Borsa Italiana, starting from 2017 January XNUMX, will be able to choose whether or not to publish those which in technical language are called "additional periodic financial information”. This was decided by Consob, which approved the amendments to the regulation on interim management reports, the accounting documents which since 2007 – with the entry into force of the first European Transparency directive – have taken the place of the old quarterly reports.
The change is epochal. Today, the periodic dissemination of accounts is mandatory for those listed on the Stock Exchange and it is precisely this constraint that is badly accepted by many companies, because it often has a heavy and not entirely justified influence on the performance of the stock.
Consob explains that the amendments to the regulation "are the culmination of a regulatory process that began last February with the transposition (through Legislative Decree No. 25 of 15/2/2016) of the directive Transparency II (2013/50/EU), which repealed the obligation to publish interim management reports".
The directive, however, has left EU countries the option to "reintroduce additional periodic information to the annual and half-yearly financial reports - continues the Commission -, albeit only under certain conditions and subject to a regulatory impact analysis as to costs and benefits" .
Since last spring, Consob has carried out two consultations with the financial market and in September it decided to introduce a new article 82-ter of the Issuers' Regulation.
Based on this rule, listed companies have the right to choose whether or not to publish the additional periodic financial information. If they choose to publish them, will have to communicate their choice to the market by specifying the information they intend to provide, so that the decisions taken are clear and stable over time. Who will stop the publications instead he will have to make his choice public and motivate it. Naturally, the interruption cannot occur while the exercise is in progress, but becomes effective at the beginning of the next one.
Furthermore, Consob informs that the Councilor of State Paul Trojan he resigned from his position as Consob Commissioner, explaining that he wishes to resume his activity as an administrative magistrate. His mandate in Consob would have expired on 14 December 2017.
