The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced, in its Primary Market Bulletin No. 39, that it is ending the temporary relaxations it introduced for companies due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The London Stock Exchange has also issued an Inside AIM removing its temporary relaxations for financial reporting deadlines implemented in light of Covid-19 from 28 June 2022.
In 2020, the FCA announced a series of measures to help companies in response to the pandemic. It says that, although the effects of Covid-19 are still being felt, it considers that issuers have adjusted so that they are now able to return to previous practices.
The relaxations being withdrawn by the FCA, and the timing of their withdrawal, are as follows:
- Corporate reporting – Issuers were allowed an additional two months to publish their annual financial reports and an additional month to publish their half yearly financial reports. These reliefs will cease to be available for reporting periods ending on or after 28 June 2022.
- Working capital statements – The FCA permitted issuers in certain circumstances to include in a prospectus or circular their key assumptions on business disruption during the pandemic, without having to include a qualified working capital statement. The FCA will no longer approve prospectuses or circulars that seek to use this approach after 28 June 2022.
- General meetings – Issuers were able to seek a dispensation from the requirement to hold a general meeting to approve a class 1 or related party transaction if certain conditions were met, including obtaining voting undertakings from shareholders. The FCA will not grant such a dispensation from 28 June 2022.
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