Directors facing new legal curbs
LISTED companies must reveal a wider range of financial information from next year, including a directors' overview to give shareholders information about the company's objectives, strategy and future prospects.
Every public company will be required to sign off an Operating Financial Review (OFR) once the Department of Trade and Industry's consultative review makes it to the statute books later this year.
OFR's will be compulsory and legally binding, leaving directors open to litigation if they mis-state a company's prospects. Although directors will decide what information to include in the OFR, an independent working group has laid down guidelines.
Rosemary Radcliffe, chairman of the working group, said an OFR should 'enable shareholders to assess strategies and the potential for those strategies to succeed'.
