ASX Listing Rule 3.1 Disclosure in Announcements

The ASX has now updated listing rule 3.1 in relation to future announcements.  It reads as:-

Wherever possible, an announcement under Listing Rule 3.1 should contain sufficient detail for investors or their professional advisers to understand its ramifications and to assess its impact on the price or value of the entity’s securities. ...
… depending on the circumstances, ASX would generally expect an announcement about the signing of a market sensitive contract with a customer to include information about:

• the name of the customer;
• the term of the contract;
• the nature of the products or services to be supplied to the customer;
• the significance of the contract to the entity;
• any material conditions that need to be satisfied before the customer becomes legally bound to proceed with the contract; and
• any other material information relevant to assessing the impact of the contract on the price or value of the entity’s securities.

In disclosing the significance of the contract to the entity, regard should be had to the guidance below about forward looking statements. For example, a statement about the projected revenue to be derived from a customer contract or any other projection that is a proxy for revenue⁽¹⁾ will be a forward looking statement and therefore must have a reasonable basis in fact or else it will be deemed to be misleading.<sup>(2)

Our Board cannot now use confidentiality as an excuse for not disclosing all details of contracts our company enters into.  Hopefully we will now not have to ask so many questions in relation to ambiguously worded announcements</sup>