Sydney, May 31, 2006 (ABN Newswire) - The results of the recent survey that the Australasian Investor Relations Association ("AIRA") conducted on Annual Reports & Electronic Communication were released at the "Trends in Investor Communication" seminar held at the Westin Hotel in Sydney yesterday.

There were 47 responses from ASX 200 companies.

Brief:

On 7 April 2006 the Federal Treasurer Peter Costello announced that the Federal Government intends to remove the obligation on Australia's listed entities to send a hard copy annual report to shareholders, and instead allow listed companies to post their annual reports to their web sites to be accessed by shareholders.

This proposed change to the Corporations Act will fundamentally alter the way listed entities communicate with shareholders. Significantly, it will also reduce the cost to listed entities of producing printed annual reports. It is expected that the legislative amendments will be enacted in the second half of 2006.

Given this news, AIRA felt it was timely to survey listed companies to ascertain how companies intend to respond to this change, and to find out how companies view the annual report as a communication tool. An online survey was conducted of ASX 200 companies in May 2006 to which there were 47 respondents.

While the results show that listed companies still view the annual report as an important shareholder communication tool, many feel the document is directed at retail rather than institutional shareholders.

For the full report, please visit: www.aira.org.au
or contact Ian Matheson - details below.

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