Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain – 12 January 2020 – As part of the efforts exerted by the Central Bank of Bahrain (“CBB”) towards regulating the capital market, maintaining fairness and effectiveness of the market, protecting investors’ rights, and as an extension of the CBB’s role in developing the disclosure and transparency standards to which the public listed shareholding companies shall comply to, the CBB has issued on Thursday, 9^th January 2020, instructions in relation to press releases pertaining to the financial results of public shareholding companies. These instructions aim to standardize the companies’ press releases when announcing the annual and quarterly financial statements, and to aid shareholders and investors in making sound investment decisions grounded on accurate and sufficient financial information of the public shareholding companies.

The instructions were developed to objectively reflect the financial results of the public shareholding companies and to enable shareholders to evaluate the companies’ financial performance accurately and comprehensively.

In this regard, Mrs. Abeer Al Sheikh Ebrahim Al Saad, Director of the Capital Markets Supervision Directorate at the CBB, stated that the development of such directives is necessary to enhance the disclosure standards followed in the Bahraini capital market, and to keep abreast of the current developments in the regional capital markets, as the CBB strives to consistently adopt international best practices.

Mrs. Al Saad also pointed out that “The CBB is always endeavouring to improve the Bahraini capital market. Issuing these instructions is a further positive step in enhancing investor confidence and maintaining the integrity of the capital market in Bahrain.”

To ensure the effective implementation of these instructions, the CBB emphasizes that all public shareholding companies listed on Bahrain Bourse must fully comply with the requirements set out thereof while preparing press releases in relation to their financial results.

These instructions can be found in detail on the CBB’s website (cbb.gov.bh).