The Securities Regulations 2009 require issuers to make copies of certain material contracts available for public inspection as part of the requirements for an offer of securities to the public under the Securities Act regime.
From time to time we receive an exemption application from an issuer who seeks to exclude from its material contracts information that it considers to be commercially sensitive.
In considering such applications, we need to determine the appropriate balance between the investors' need to know the sensitive information and the potential competitive harm to the issuer in disclosing that information.
This note sets out current FMA policy in this area.
The Securities Regulations 2009 require disclosure of material contracts as follows:
The starting point for consideration of exemption applications of this nature is that we aim for full disclosure, and we will only permit deletion of commercially sensitive information from material contracts in exceptional circumstances. Such exceptional circumstances must be clearly identified in any application for exemption.
No exemption will be granted where exclusion of the information in question means the prospectus will be likely to deceive, mislead or confuse with regard to any particular that is material to the offer, including by failing to refer, or give proper emphasis, to adverse circumstances.
We may be willing to grant an exemption that will permit an issuer to exclude commercially sensitive information from the disclosure copies of material contracts, if it is satisfied that disclosure of the information will be seriously detrimental to the issuer, and that detriment outweighs the benefit arising from publication. Each application will be considered on a case by case basis.
Any exemption granted will be in respect of the particular information determined to be sensitive, and to meet the above criteria, rather than being an exemption applying to the whole contract.
Any exemption granted can be expected to be conditional upon the prospectus stating, at the appropriate point in the statutory information section:
The FMC Regulations 2014 require that, if the existence, or any of the terms, of a contract entered into by any member of the issuing group is material information, the register entry contain a copy of the contract, or a summary of its key terms (including the material information). An exception is that this is not necessary if all of the key terms and material information are summarised or disclosed in the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS).
If the existence, or key terms, of a contract required to be summarised on the register contained commercially sensitive information we will consider this policy in determining any exemption application.