(News Bulletin 247) – Companies listed in Europe are not required to publish their accounts every quarter. Unlike the United States where regulations are very strict, both in terms of frequency and information communicated to investors.

Unlike half-yearly results, which are highly controlled, companies listed in Europe are not required to publish their financial performance each quarter and therefore have greater room to maneuver on the indicators they provide.

Most of them choose to inform the market every quarter but some prefer not to publish anything at all and are content to only reveal their account every six months.

In the United States, companies have the same publication obligation for their quarterly results as for the half-yearly results: they must provide investors with their entire income statement, namely from turnover to net profit.

Flexible regulation in the EU

In the European Union, legislation only requires a financial report that covers the first six months of the financial year, and which must be published “no later than two months” after the end of the semester.

Member states can put in place stricter rules but this is not the case in the main countries of the European Union.

In France, a quarterly or intermediate publication “is the sole responsibility” of companies, according to the Financial Markets Authority. The stock market watchdog recommends that companies which choose not to publish anything “take particular care to respect their obligation of permanent information”, of companies towards investors. They must be notified in the event of changes in the company’s prospects.

This greater latitude allows companies to publish only the information they want. For example, the world number one luxury brand LVMH only publishes its sales figures during the first and third quarters.

The Dutch brewer Heineken has decided to stop publishing profits every quarter in 2024 while continuing to give its turnover.

Some rare counterexamples

The norm for companies in major European indices remains to publish information every quarter, while the semi-annual rhythm is much more common among small caps.

“The larger a company, the more it needs to appeal to large international investors. And for these players, the essential standard is quarterly publication,” explains Lionel Melka, manager at Swan Capital, to AFP. .

Some counter-examples exist, such as the arms company BAE Systems, listed in London in the main FTSE 100 index and which only publishes its results twice a year, for the first half of the year and for the annual financial year.

“As a long-cycle company, with programs spanning decades, semi-annual financial reports provide our stakeholders with the most representative view of the company’s continuing strength,” she explains to the AFP.

In Spain, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) ended in April 2021 the previous obligation to publish quarterly results: only half-yearly publication is now required of listed companies.

Since then, few groups have taken the plunge. Within the Ibex 35, the Spanish equivalent of the CAC 40, only the energy group Naturgy (formerly Gas Natural Fenosa) currently only publishes its results every six months.

“It’s a decision that is difficult to justify for companies, because we go out of the field of vision of many investors, without escaping the restrictive transparency rules linked to listing,” explains Lionel Melka.

Another Spanish group, the pharmaceutical giant Grifols, announced in 2021 that it was putting an end to its quarterly publications. But the Catalan group reversed this decision in March 2023, after the arrival of its new executive director Thomas Glanzmann.

This return to quarterly publications came at a complicated time for the world leader in drugs based on blood plasma, disrupted on the stock market after a series of acquisitions which significantly increased its debt.

(With AFP)