This practice already occurs in major foreign equity markets and would enable fund managers and analysts time to better absorb information surrounding company profit announcements prior to the commencement of trading.
Of 60 fund managers and equity analysts who responded to the online poll, 71 per cent wanted financial results released prior to 8:30am.
AIRA CEO Ian Matheson said the poll results sent a clear message to companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
“They [fund managers and analysts] prefer to read and analyse earnings numbers earlier in the day, so that during hectic profit reporting seasons they can be better prepared before share trading commences and ahead of company briefings,” he said
Some companies have already adopted this practice since the ASX implemented changes to enable pre-opening announcements. Mr Matheson said he hoped the results from the poll would encourage further entities to act.
The poll also revealed that 61 per cent of respondents had no issue with companies presenting results via webcast or conference call if they were still able to contact the CEO with questions. Those companies with this method of communication still in practice should therefore re-consider face-to-face meetings with the CEO and their senior management, according to AIRA.
Mr Matheson said this indicated fund managers and analysts feel virtual meetings increase efficiency.
“They still get to hear the CEO and ask questions, but they don’t have to chase around town to different meetings,” said Mr Matheson.
“Time is critical to them and the benefit to the company is that when shares commence trading, the market has already absorbed and understood the results.” Face-to-face group briefings were, however, ranked as the most important communication method for the announcement of results.
Mr Matheson said some companies may still conduct face-to-face presentations if they hold a large retail shareholder base or are a recently listed company where investors are still becoming familiar with management.
Three in five respondents would also like companies to disclose to the ASX what they think the consensus profit forecasts are, regardless of whether there is a disclosure requirement, where companies have collected earnings estimates from analysts. Sixty-nine per cent said this disclosure should be made to the ASX, while 39 per cent said it should be disclosed on the company website.
The poll also found 60 per cent of respondents felt recent regulatory changes had made no impact on the way companies reported results. Only 10 per cent of respondents said the changes had enhanced the reporting.
