Australia: ASIC guidance on Jobkeeper notices for listed entities

As previously advised, the Australian Government passed legislation that requires all listed entities to disclose certain details about any JobKeeper payments that they, or their subsidiaries have received or voluntarily repaid.  

ASIC has now finalised the process for these notices to be provided and issued guidance to assist in the completion of the notice.

ASIC has created a notification form that contains all the required information on their website. Once submitted, a PDF document will be created and emailed to the email address provided on the form. However, this form must then be given to the entity's market operator and it is important to note that the PDF document will not be sent directly to the market operator.

The guidance points out that the information must be provided in respect of all financial years in which a JobKeeper payment is received.  The ASIC form allows for two financial years information to be reported.  If payments are received in more than two years, separate form(s) will be required.

The notice will also be made available shortly on the websites of ASX and NSX.

The guidance discusses the situation where the amount disclosed in an annual financial report is different from the amount disclosed in the notice and suggests a separate announcement could be made to the market operator.  However, we note that this is not a mandatory requirement.

The deadline for completion of the notice depends on whether an entity's annual financial report was lodged with ASIC:

It is important to note that listed entities and their subsidiaries that have not received any JobKeeper payments do not have to complete the notice.

The information will be published by ASIC in a consolidated report at a later date.  Further details can be found here on the ASIC website here.

This article is issued as general commentary - please contact us about your specific circumstances.