investmentGATEWAY

Law N. 51 (I)/2017 amending the Companies Law transposes into Cyprus law the EU Directives 2014/95/EU and 2013/34/EU relating to the disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by certain large legal undertakings and groups of companies with public interest (the “Directives”).

The Directives introduce new disclosure requirements for large undertakings regarding the publication of their non-financial information on their annual reports from 2018 onwards.

Eligible Companies

The requirements for disclosing non-financial information apply to large undertakings which are public-interest entities and employ more than 500 (five hundred) employees. The definition of “large undertaking” covers corporations that are listed such as banks, insurance companies and other public-interest legal entities.

These legal entities must disclose a description of their non-financial information regarding their performance and position relating to environmental, social and human rights issues. The statement must include a description of the main risks relating to the abovementioned issues including the due diligence processes adopted and the outcome of those policies.

Required Non- Financial Information

Large undertakings must disclose on their annual reports policies they implement regarding the environmental protection, social responsibility and treatment of employees. Also, the Directives impose an additional requirement to the large corporations to adopt anti-corruption and bribery policies ensuring at the same time that there is diversity on company boards in terms of age, gender, nationality and educational background.

EU law requires the large legal entities to disclose certain information regarding the way they deal with environmental and social issues in order to provide investors, policy makers and other stakeholders with the ability to evaluate their performance and at the same time encourage the big corporations to develop a more responsible approach towards the wider global community.

However, due to the peculiar requirements regarding the size and the nature of the legal entities the amendments apply to a small amount of companies that satisfy the aforementioned requirements.

Source: S. Evangelides & Partners LLC