| ASX: Review of Disclosure of Directors’ Interest Notices – Q3 2009 |
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17/11/2009 13:36 (119 Day 16:35 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has on November 17 released its latest review of disclosure of Directors’ Interest Notices lodged by listed entities.
The review was conducted by ASX Markets Supervision (ASXMS) on all Directors’ Interest Notices lodged between 1 July 2009 and 30 September 2009 (Q3 2009). The Notices cover a director’s appointment, changes to a director’s interests, and ceasing to be a director. This is the fourth such review that ASXMS has completed1.
Of the 3,077 Notices lodged during the latest three-month period:
• 91.9% or 2,827 were lodged correctly and within the five business days allowed by the ASX listing rule.
• ASXMS made 43 telephone calls and sent 197 letters to listed entities seeking explanations, of which 179 letters were released to the market.
The Q3 2009 compliance level is slightly lower than the prior corresponding period (Q3 2008) when 93.6% of Notices were lodged correctly and within time, with a breach rate of 6.4%. It is also slightly lower than the level when the review was last completed (Q1 2009) when 92.7% of the Notices complied with the ASX listing rule and 7.3% were found to be in breach.
Of the 250 breaches in Q3 2009:
• 53 (1.7% of total Notices lodged) concerned active or ‘on market’ trades by directors, which excludes trades conducted pursuant to employee share schemes.
• 106 (3.4% of total Notices or 42.4% of all breaches) also involved a potential breach of the Corporations Act by being lodged later than 14 calendar days. Twenty-three (23) of the 106 related to active or ‘on market’ trades by directors.
• ASXMS has referred all 106 potential breaches of the Corporations Act to ASIC.
Eric Mayne, Chief Supervision Officer of ASX, said: “Timely disclosure of changes to directors’ interests helps maintain investor confidence in market integrity. While compliance levels continue to be high – over 90% - there is no satisfactory excuse for failing to meet the disclosure rules every time.
“Directors are expected to set the best example. Failure to properly disclose creates the perception of misconduct. To be useful, information about directors’ holdings must be up-to-date and, where changes have occurred, must enable investors to understand the nature of the changes.”
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