Immediate disclosure of material information

9.07

Mr. P was required to despatch certain private and confidential documents pertaining to a material corporate proposal of X Bhd which has yet to be announced. Mr. P subsequently discovered that the documents were missing under suspicious circumstances and hence, was unable to despatch the same. Mr. P immediately reported the matter to X Bhd. Is X Bhd required to make an immediate disclosure of the corporate proposal?

X Bhd would be required to make an assessment of the circumstances and must make an immediate announcement pursuant to the paragraph 9.06(3) of the Main LR if the suspicious circumstances aforesaid would reasonably lead to the belief that the material information has been inadvertently disclosed. It is to be noted that the illustration provided above is not exhaustive and the circumstances which may cause a listed issuer to believe that material information may have been inadvertently disclosed are varied and subjective on a case to case basis. It may include situations where a listed issuer is of the view that the necessary degree of confidentiality cannot be maintained or suspicious ‘leak’ of the information by party(ies) privy to the material information have occurred. In such circumstances, the listed issuer would have to make an immediate announcement notwithstanding that there is no unusual market activity or insider trading in the listed issuer’s securities or rumours/reports concerning the information.