On Wednesday, September 11, 2019, ARIR (Romanian Investor Relations Association) together with representatives of listed companies, consultants and lawyers met to discuss the advantages and content of the non-financial reports that listed companies are required to compile. This reporting is one of the criteria evaluated by ARIR project of evaluating the communication of listed companies with investors, whether a company has a non-financial / ESG report – environmental, social and governance, preferably in accordance with an international standard. of reporting available as a separate report OR integrated in the Annual Report as a non-financial statement.
The participants in the debate were: Ionuț Bohâlțeanu, Managing partner BOHÂLȚEANU AND ASSOCIATIONS, Gaetano Casale, Managing Partner INNOVA Project Consulting, Adriana Marin, Investor Relations Department OMV PETROM, Silvana Ivan, Partner ȚUCA ZBÂRCEA & ASOCIAȚII.
The event was moderated by Daniela Șerban, President of ARIR.
It was discussed the legal framework to transpose at national level the EU Directive 95/2014, through the Ministry of Public Finance Order no. 1938/2016 regarding non-financial reporting, reporting forms, publication deadlines and penalties. Following the modification of the legislation transposing at national level EU Directive 95/2014 on non-financial reporting, the legal obligation to produce and publish a Report or a Non-Financial Statement starting with the financial year 2019 has been extended to all companies that exceed an average number of 500 employees. This information complements the annual financial statements and should include at least information about the company’s impact on the environment, social and personnel issues, respect for human rights, fighting corruption and bribery.
International investors are increasingly demanding the presentation of such information, wishing to understand how much the company’s performance can be affected by how it manages environmental, human resources, anti-corruption, community relations, and other issues. Of course, there is another perspective of the situation, which is of interest to other categories of investors, such as investment funds, who choose to direct their funds only to those companies that are concerned about the impact their activities have on the environment, society and the economy or how prepared they are to deal with climate change. Another aspect is the understanding of the risks associated with the activity of a company, precisely by detailing the non-financial information that must be interpreted alongside the financial ones.
The reporting term for non-financial information is established according to the reporting method chosen and may be the date by which the directors’ report is published or a maximum of 6 months from the balance sheet date. According to information received from the Ministry of Public Finance, the balance sheet date is December 31, which means that the deadline is June 30.
The debate can be seen in Romanian at the following LINK: