Abu Dhabi, UAE, 11 April 2007: The National Investor (TNI), one of the leading investment firms in the GCC, yesterday published its “Quarterly Results Publication Calendar”. The report aims to forecast the results publication dates of all listed companies in the UAE and is a follow-on to TNI’s publication dated October 2006 entitled “Third Quarter Results Calendar”. The calendar is the first initiative of its kind in the UAE and based on the success of last year’s calendar, TNI has decided to turn this into a quarterly publication.
The report makes several recommendations, including the need for UAE-listed companies to invest time in providing shareholder information, possibly by way of dedicated investor relations officers. “There seems to be generally very little communication between corporations and their shareholders,” the report highlighted as part of its recommendations for a “better disclosure world”. The report also calls for the market regulator to continue its crack-down on non-compliance, a centralization of information and legislation by the markets and regulators as well as the early communication of results announcement dates to the market.
TNI’s report compares the financial reporting trends of the last two seasons with the previous six seasons. The findings are summarized by five major takeaways: Companies are taking disclosure increasingly seriously; there has been continued progress in companies’ compliance; official disclosure rules could be confusing at times; results dissemination is insufficiently centralized and there is significant discrepancy in the quality of earnings data.
About The National Investor: The National Investor (TNI) is a privately owned regional investment and merchant banking group. The firm comprises seven strategic business units covering investment and merchant banking, private equity, asset management, real estate, investment research, principal investments and client advisory. In addition, the firm has an associate company, GNSC, which provides brokerage services as a registered member of the Abu Dhabi Securities Market (ADSM) and the Dubai Financial Market (DFM).