The company failed to publish inside information. In addition, the company failed to publish an announcement, stating the date from which and the website on which the annual financial report for the financial year 2020/2021 were made publicly available.

The administrative fine order is final and binding.

Background information:

Ad-hoc publication

Companies, such as Dr. Hönle AG, that are domiciled in Germany and are issuers of securities and other financial instruments on an organised market are subject to the ad-hoc publication requirement. This means that they are required to publish inside information without delay. Inside information is non-public information that, if it were made public, would be likely to have a significant effect on the price of a financial instrument. The ad-hoc publication requirement is part of the MAR.

Publishing inside information without delay is important for several reasons: first, to prevent insiders from using their knowledge to gain an advantage when trading in securities or other financial instruments. Second, to ensure that investors are not misled when making investment decisions.

Any company failing to publish inside information violates the provisions of the first subparagraph of Article 17 (1) of the MAR. BaFin may sanction such a violation by imposing a fine of a maximum of 2.5 million euros or 2% of the total turnover.

Financial reporting requirements

Financial reports provide information on companies’ assets, financial position and results of operations. This information is important to investors because it allows them to make informed investment decisions. Companies such as Dr. Hönle AG that are domiciled in Germany and that issue securities that are traded on an organised market in Germany must regularly publish such financial reports in the Company Register (Unternehmensregister). They must also publish announcements stating when and where their financial reports are made publicly available in addition to their availability in the Company Register.

For annual financial reports, the announcement must be published no later than four months after the end of each reporting period and before the annual financial report; for half-yearly financial reports, the announcement must be published no later than three months after the end of each reporting period and before the half-yearly financial report.

Failure to publish financial reports and announcements stating when and where these reports are made publicly available, or failure to publish such reports and announcements within the prescribed period, constitutes a contravention of sections 114 et seq. of the WpHG. BaFin may impose administrative fines on companies that fail to comply with these requirements. The maximum amount for this fine is 10 million euros or up to 5% of total revenue.