The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) plans to focus on gender diversity, cybersecurity, and asset impairments, in their upcoming reviews of continuous disclosure.
The AMF on Thursday published the 2015-2016 Activity Report for the Continuous Disclosure Review Program, which also highlights its priorities for the coming year.
In fiscal 2016-2017, the regulator “will pay particular attention to disclosures by companies on the representation of women on boards and in senior management positions, impairment of assets, and disclosures related to mineral projects and cyber security measures,” the AMF says in a news release.
The report also sets out common deficiencies observed by the AMF during its reviews, and it makes recommendations to companies to ensure compliant disclosure. Among other things, it highlights issues with firms in evaluating their internal controls and their disclosure controls.
The reviews found that “many issuers are still not adhering to the guidance” issued by the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) in the use of financial measures that do not comply with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the AMF says.
In addition, the reviews found “a widening in the gap” between non-GAAP reporting measures and the most directly comparable metrics. “The main measures concerned are adjusted net income, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), and free cash flow,” the AMF says.
“Companies should bear in mind that the presentation of these adjusted measures could lead to confusion and mislead investors in their assessment of the companies’ financial performance,” it adds.
“We will be monitoring these issuers to ensure they comply with the guidance in this notice and, if necessary, will require amended and restated filings,” said Gilles Leclerc, AMF superintendent, securities markets, in statement. “We therefore ask all issuers to be more vigilant when preparing their next continuous disclosure materials.”