CESR recommendations on use of IFRS in prospectuses
09 Jan 2004
The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has submitted to the European Commission its (PDF 294k) on the content of prospectuses.
Noting that some EU member States require 3 years of historical financial information in prospectuses, CESR recommended, for companies that must switch to IFRS because they are selling securities in a public market for the first time, that:
- Debt issuers should restate only one year of accounts on an IFRS basis even if two years is required for equity issuers.
- No issuer should be required to produce IFRS figures in a prospectus for any period earlier than 1 January 2004 (1 January 2006 if the member State allows delayed transition to IFRS for debt issuers and/or companies that currently prepare their primary financial statements with US GAAP).
- Non-EU companies that list in Europe for the first time and that use "internationally accepted standards" should be allowed to continue to do so until 2007.
- Non-EU issuers that currently have securities listed on a European exchange be required to switch to IFRS only if the future transparency directive requires them to do so.
- The Commission should establish a procedure to evaluate equivalence of non-EU-GAAPs to IFRS.