FMA releases final guidance on non-GAAP financial information

Media Release
3 September 2012

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has today released its final guidance note on the disclosure of non-GAAP financial information.

The guidance note will assist issuers in their communication of financial information to investors and other stakeholders to minimise the potential for it to be misleading.

FMA Head of Compliance Elaine Campbell said non-GAAP reporting has become common practice and it is necessary for FMA to outline its expectations for issuers who use it.

"Non-GAAP terms such as 'underlying earnings', 'normalised profit' and 'adjusted earnings' lack standard meaning," Ms Campbell said. "By issuing guidance we are setting a minimum standard for how we expect this information to be laid out."

FMA received 25 written submissions to its draft guidance and consulted with Chief Financial Officers of listed companies, independent directors and audit firms.

"The feedback we received was detailed and constructive and helped us to refine our guidance," said Elaine Campbell.

"I'm confident this guidance note will increase confidence in our financial markets."

FMA will begin using the guidance when reviewing non-GAAP financial information disclosures from 1 January 2013.

A copy of the final guidance note, including a practical example of an announcement using non-GAAP profit information can be found here.

Non-confidential submissions can be found here.

Ends

Contact:
Tony Reid on 021 739 052 or [email protected]