Call for firms to publish figures online

Date: 08/05/02

By Peter Chapman

FIRMS should be free to publish key investor information such as annual results on their websites instead of in financial newspapers that few people read, according to a leading company law expert.

Professor Jaap Winter, an advisor to the European Commission and Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever, said it was 'questionable' whether companies should be required by regulators to advertise such information in high-cost financial titles.

'It seems rather obvious that if you were interested about a company the one place you would look for information would be the company's website.

'We may want to seriously consider whether companies should [instead] be required to do filings on their website, with links to the normal registers where that information should be. It is easy, it is cheap,' Winter said.

The Commission is canvassing the markets on plans to set pan-European standards for company reporting.

Proposals published last year were criticised for requiring firms to carry out an audited quarterly report, to be presented to regulators within 60 days.

Critics warned this would place heavy demands on small companies and would lead to a shortage of auditors.

Firms should be free to publish key investor information such as annual results on their websites instead of in financial newspapers, according to leading company law expert Professor Jaap Winter.