The Contents of the Prospectus: Rules for Financial Information

Abstract

In keeping with the Prospectus Regulation’s aim of providing investors with any necessary information that is material for making an informed assessment of, among other things, the assets and liabilities, profits and losses, financial position, and prospects of the issuer, financial information is a key element of the prospectus information package. Hence, although under EU law the content and the format of a prospectus both depend on a variety of factors, such as the type of issuer, security and issuance, the prospectus must always provide detailed information concerning the issuers’ assets and liabilities, financial position and profits or losses. Against this backdrop, and with a view to developing a comprehensive analysis of the rules for financial information set out by the EU prospectus regime, I divide this Chapter as follows: Part II provides an overview of relevant rules concerning the financial information that must be included in the prospectus; Part III examines historical financial information; Part IV deals with some specific issues concerning pro forma financial information; finally, Part V analyses the definition of profit forecasts and estimates along with related audit and disclosure requirements. Part VI sets out some concluding remarks.