CMA LAW: "Confidentiality of Material Information Which Disclosure is Postponed"

In line with the Capital Markets Authority's (the Authority) endeavor to achieve one of its main goals which is the implementation of the complete disclosure policy in order to achieve fairness and transparency through enforcing the rules and regulations that regulate the disclosure issues, it withdraws the attention of issuers to the importance of abiding by the provisions of the regulations of disclosing the material information in general, and in particular the ones related to handling the postponed disclosures regarding those information. Such disclosures are excluded from the ones that the issuer is required to disclose promptly. The Authority would also like to attract the attention of the issuers to the cases of unusual and unreasoned activity of their securities that requires immediate disclosure regarding the material information and disregarding the confidentiality reasons even if they obtain the Authority's approval to postpone the disclosure. This is due to the fact that the unusual activity in trading indicates that the material information is no longer considered confidential, and therefore shall not be postponed. The issuer shall promptly disclose this information according to the specified mechanisms for disclosing the material information.

Finally, the Authority urges all issuers to observe to the cases of unusual activity of their securities, and they should take immediate action, whether by commenting, clarifying, disclosing or announcing information in order to protect the interests of the traders and avoid any responsibility resulting from the violation.

Note: Traders and Licensed Persons can visit the Capital Markets Authority’s website (www.cma.gov.kw) and Kuwait Stock Exchange website (www.kse.com.kw) and the Twitter account @cma_kwt to keep up with the CMA awareness announcements.