Telecom says its New Zealand investors are not being disadvantaged, despite a disclosure regime which sees the company provide more detailed information to the New York Stock Exchange.
Yesterday the Business Herald reported details of the employment contract signed by incoming chief executive Paul Reynolds which was contained
in Telecom's filing to the New York Stock Exchange, information that hadn't previously been available.
The filings also included a substantial section detailing "risk factors" the company could face, potentially cutting into future revenues
Telecom has American depository shares listed on the New York exchange which allow local investors to buy shares in Telecom in US dollars. Around 18 per cent of Telecom shares are held by American investors with ADRs.
Head of investor relations at Telecom Mark Flesher said in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom scandals the disclosure requirements in the United States have changed dramatically, particularly in relation to risk.
Information contained in the US filings would already have been seen by New Zealand investors under the NZX's continuous disclosure regime, Flesher said.
The additional information provided to the US exchange was not material for investment purposes.
He said the company took its lead in disclosing material from the exchange with the strictest regime.
"If it happens to be 20-F [annual report filed in the US by foreign issuers], well we obviously do that. The other disclosure events are typically triggered out of Australia and New Zealand," said Flesher.
He encouraged investors to access all the available information on the company, including the SEC filings, annual and quarterly reports and copies of investor presentations.
"All those things will give different answers to different questions and be at different levels," said Flesher.
Forsyth Barr telecommunications analyst Guy Hallwright said that in his experience US annual filings were "huge and mostly useless".
He said New Zealand investors could rely on stock exchange filings and Telecom's "comprehensive" quarterly breakdowns for information on the company.
Deloitte's national technical partner, Denise Hodgkins, said that with the New Zealand introduction of the international financial standards at the beginning of the year, there was now a lot more disclosure required in company financial statements.
