Obligation of issuers of securities to immediately report and publish any information that might have a bearing on the price of their securities.
Inside information is a not yet publicly known fact which may affect the price of the securities significantly after the announcement of its publication. Persons who - by virtue of their position or profession - have access to such not yet published information about a company are considered "insiders".
The regulations pertaining to the disclosure requirement are contained in section 15 of the German Securities Trading Act, which states that issuers of securities admitted to the Regulated Market on a German stock exchange are obliged to report all corporate developments that have a sufficiently strong impact on the issuer's financial situation or its business activities to influence the market price of the security. Securities listed in the Unofficial Regulated Market (Open market) are exempt from this requirement.
The obligation to release such information without delay is intended to mitigate the abuse of inside information and enhance market transparency. A violation of the disclosure requirement is punishable with a fine.
While the Federal Supervisory Office for Securities Trading (BAFin) is responsible for investigating whether issuers are meeting the disclosure requirement, it is the task of the Exchange Operating Board to decide whether the information published requires a (temporary) suspension of a quotation or a suspension of stock market trading. Therefore, issuers are required to inform both BAFin and the Exchange Operating Board of the German exchange before posting a fax on the inside information in question. The board of management is the insider information with market practices 30 minutes prior to its publication.
According to section 5, paragraph 1 of the Securities Trading Act, the information must be published in the German language via an electronic information dissemination system at first. Additionally, the Ad-hoc disclosure be accessible online on the website address of the issuer for a period of at least one month. Furthermore, companies in Prime Standard are obliged to publish ad-hoc messages in English.
According to section 5, paragraph 1 of the Securities Trading Act, proof of the publication of the Ad-hoc disclosure must be communicated directly to BAFin and the Exchange Operating Board of the German exchange where the securities or their derivatives are listed.
You will find current Ad-hoc disclosures in the news section of boerse-frankfurt.de
