Regular periodical public disclosure obligations of public companies

Abstract

Public companies in the capacity of capital market participants have the obligation to inform the public on their legal and financial status, their general business operations, as well as on the issuance of securities and other financial instruments. Such obligations may be divided into two groups: The first group consists of regular periodical public disclosures, such as the publication of financial reports (annual, semi-annual and quarterly), and the management's reports on the public company's business operations. The second group comprises the obligation of occasional (ad hoc) public disclosure. The thesis analyses the obligation of public companies to inform the public in course of their regular reporting. The new Capital Market Law based on two EU Directives (the Transparency Directive and the Directive on Public Disclosure of Inside Information and the Definition of Market Manipulation) regulates such obligation of public companies in substantially more detail than the prior Law on the Market of Securities and Other Financial Instruments (hereinafter: ZTHV). Due to the above the ZTHV's provisions are compared to the new solutions within the domain of regular periodical disclosure of the Capital Market Law.