ASIC Extends Deadlines for Financial Reports and AGMs

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced that it will extend the deadline to lodge financial reports for listed and unlisted entities by one month for balance dates from 23 June to 7 July 2021 (inclusive). ASIC said the extension will help alleviate pressure on resources for the audits of smaller entities and provide adequate time for the completion of the audit process, taking into account the challenges presented by COVID-19 conditions. This relief will not apply to registered foreign companies.

ASIC will also extend its “no-action” position for public companies to hold their annual general meetings (AGMs) from within five months to within seven months after the end of financial years that end up to 7 July 2021.

The announcement includes the following relief (where applicable) for entities that make use of the extended deadlines:

• similar extended deadlines will be available for sending reports to members (but note that some of those deadlines also operate by reference to the date of the next AGM);
• issuers of continuously quoted securities that use the extended reporting deadlines will not lose the ability to use reduced fundraising disclosures;
• the deadlines for compliance plan audits for registered schemes will be extended by one month;
• where a grandfathered proprietary company uses the extended deadline relief, it will continue to retain its grandfathered status – the directors’ report must disclose that the company has applied ASIC relief to report to members no later than one month after the normal reporting deadline; and
• the reporting deadlines in ASIC Corporations (Wholly-owned Companies) Instrument 2016/785 will be extended by one month for balance dates from 23 June to 7 July 2021.

The extensions do not apply for reporting for balance dates from 8 January 2021 to 22 June 2021, as ASIC does not consider there to be a general lack of resources to meet financial reporting and audit obligations. However, the regulator will consider relief on a case-by-case basis.

Important: Clients should not act solely on the basis of the material contained here. Items herein are general comments only and do not constitute or convey advice per se. Also, changes in legislation may occur quickly. We, therefore, recommend that our formal advice be sought before acting in any of the areas.