| | | Posted by Moe on LinkedIn.
As a public-company CEO, I get a version of the same question all the time:
“Why can’t you just tell us what’s really going on?”
It’s a fair question. Investors deserve transparency. But Zentek is listed on both Nasdaq and the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV), and that comes with very real responsibilities around what we disclose, when, and how.
Regulators on both sides of the border have been crystal clear recently. In 2024, the SEC fined DraftKings US$200,000 after its CEO posted upbeat comments about “really strong” growth on LinkedIn and X shortly before earnings. Those posts, seen only by his followers, were found to contain material, non-public information, breaching Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD), which requires that all investors get material news at the same time not just those who happen to follow a CEO’s social media.
Canadian rules and TSXV policies say the same thing in a different accent. National Policy 51-201 and TSX/TSXV timely-disclosure guidance explicitly prohibit “selective disclosure” and require that material information be released promptly by broadly disseminated news releases and filings.
For a company like Zentek, that means our primary channels for new information are:
News releases and regulatory filings (financials, MD&A, AIF, material change reports)
Webcasts and conference calls announced in advance, and
official presentations posted to our investor website.
What does that mean in practice?
I cannot use message boards, DMs, or even my personal LinkedIn to drop hints about undisclosed contracts, regulatory outcomes, financings, or performance trends no matter how eager I am to “reassure” people.
I am required to be disciplined about forward-looking statements, making sure we provide proper context, assumptions, and risk factors in formal channels instead of sharing casual timelines in informal ones.
If something is important enough that you would trade on it, it almost certainly belongs first in a news release or filing, not in a reply to a comment thread.
And this doesn’t stop with the CEO. Anyone who acts for Zentek and has access to material, non-public information employees, directors, officers, consultants, contractors, IR and PR firms, and other advisers is subject to the same standards.
Our disclosure policy and insider-trading rules apply across that entire ecosystem. That’s why we use NDAs, maintain insider lists, and train people not to comment on non-public matters, rumours, or short-term share-price moves on social media or chat forums.
So when I sometimes say, “I can’t answer that yet,” it isn’t because I don’t value transparency. It’s because true transparency in public markets means providing the right information, to all investors, at the same time, through the right channels.
That’s the standard we’re holding ourselves, and everyone who works with Zentek to, as a dual-listed Nasdaq and TSXV issuer.
#PlayBytheRules #BuildASustainableBusiness |
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