A Malaysian annual report for a Main Market company follows a list set by Bursa Malaysia. That list sits in Part A of Appendix 9C of the Main Market Listing Requirements, Chapter 9 (as at 31 October 2025). A free template gives you a cover and a few nice pages. Most of the pages the rules ask for are tables, profiles and statements. Those have to be built for your company.
The list also grew recently. Paragraph 9.25A applies to financial years ending on or after 31 December 2025. It asks for financial data for this year and last year, in a set format, for Shariah screening by the Securities Commission. A December 2026 year end will carry that page again.
Here is the report section by section, with the design work each part needs.
The front pages: cover, theme and corporate information
No rule tells you what the cover should look like. This is where the designer has the most freedom. The theme for the year sets the cover, the section dividers and the colour of the charts inside.
The corporate information page is less free. Part A asks for the registered office address, telephone number and email address. It also asks for the same details for the office that keeps the register of securities, plus the company secretary’s name. A designer sets these as a clean reference page that shareholders can find quickly from the contents page.
Management discussion and analysis
Item 7 of Part A sets out what the management discussion and analysis (MD&A) must cover. That includes a review of each main business segment and the known risks with plans to deal with them. It also needs a forward-looking statement on outlook and any dividend policy.
The MD&A is long text, so the design work is about reading order. Each segment gets a divider page and a short summary box. Charts and quotes from management sit beside the paragraph they explain.
Financial highlights and charts
Financial highlights are not a named Part A item, but many listed companies include them near the front. Five years of revenue and profit, drawn to the same scale, show the trend at a glance.
Every chart here is built from your audited numbers. If a figure changes in the last audit round, the chart changes too. A good designer builds each chart so it updates from the data without being redrawn.
Board and leadership profiles
Items 3, 4 and 4A of Appendix 9C ask for details of every director, the chief executive and key senior management. For each director that includes name, age, gender, nationality and qualification. It also covers working experience, date first appointed, board committees and board meetings attended. The rules also ask about any conflict of interest and certain past convictions.
With this many facts, every profile needs the same layout. Use one portrait style, one fact block and the same order each time. On a board of ten, small differences look careless.
Sustainability statement
Item 29 of Appendix 9C asks for a narrative Sustainability Statement on how the company manages sustainability risks and opportunities, in the manner Bursa prescribes. In many reports it runs as its own section, with data tables, targets and diagrams. Our article on the NSRF timeline explains which listed companies move to the ISSB-based standards and when.
For a designer, this section is mostly data presentation. Energy, emissions and staff figures need tables that read across the years. Icons and colour help the reader move between topics.
Governance statements
Several Part A items are statements written by the board and its committees:
- the audit committee report (item 6)
- the nominating committee’s activities (item 6A)
- an overview of how the company applies the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (item 8)
- a responsibility statement for the audited financial statements (item 9)
- the statement on risk management and internal control (item 10)
These pages are almost all text, so the design work is typography. Clear heading levels and short lines help. So does enough white space for a reader to find a paragraph again.
Item 11 adds a harder table. It asks for directors’ and chief executive remuneration on a named basis. Each component, such as fees, salaries, bonuses and benefits in kind, must be shown for each person. Item 18 adds the audit and non-audit fees paid to the auditors. Wide tables like these need careful layout to fit the page and stay easy to read.
Audited financial statements
Paragraph 9.23(1) requires the annual report to include the annual audited financial statements, together with the auditors’ and directors’ reports. This part usually runs to many pages of statements and notes.
The text and figures come from the finance team and auditors. The designer sets the type. Numbers line up, column heads are clear and no figure changes by accident. Every page is checked against the signed version before printing.
The new Shariah screening page
Under paragraph 9.25A, the data must be shown in a prescribed format. That changes the design brief for this page. The layout can match the rest of the report, but the content and order of the table should not be restyled. The table compares the current financial year with the one before.
The back pages: shareholders, properties and the AGM
Item 23 of Appendix 9C asks for an analysis of shareholdings. This covers substantial shareholders and their interests, and a distribution schedule of holders by size of holding. The list of properties asks for each property’s address and a short description. It also asks for the existing use, tenure, approximate age of the buildings and net book value.
Then comes the notice of the annual general meeting and the proxy form. The proxy form is the one page shareholders fill in by hand. It needs real space to write and a clear cut line if it is printed.
What an annual report template cannot do
| Section | What the design work involves |
|---|---|
| Cover and theme pages | Original concept built on the year’s story |
| MD&A | Long-text structure, charts placed beside their paragraphs |
| Financial highlights | Charts built from audited data, same scale across years |
| Board profiles | One repeatable layout for many facts per person |
| Sustainability statement | Multi-year data tables and topic navigation |
| Remuneration and fee tables | Wide tables fitted to the page |
| Financial statements | Exact typesetting of statements and notes |
| Shariah screening data | A prescribed format kept intact |
| Proxy form | A usable form with writing space |
If you are about to start, What a Designer Needs From You Before an Annual Report Starts lists the files and approvals to collect first. Want one team to build every page in the table, from the cover to the proxy form? See QC Fixer’s annual report design service.
Frequently asked questions
Can we design our annual report in Canva?
A Canva template can give you a cover and some feature pages. Most of a listed company’s annual report is tables, profiles and statements, and those still have to be built and checked for your company.
Do private companies in Malaysia need to follow Appendix 9C?
No. Appendix 9C is part of the Bursa Malaysia Listing Requirements, so it applies to listed companies. A private company’s reporting duties come from company law instead, so ask your company secretary which documents you must prepare.
What is the Shariah screening section in an annual report?
It is a table of comparative financial data for the current and previous financial year. Paragraph 9.25A of the Main Market Listing Requirements requires it for financial years ending on or after 31 December 2025, for screening by the Securities Commission.
Which pages of an annual report take the most design time?
Usually the financial statements and the profile pages, because they contain the most detail that must be exact. The cover takes creative time, but it is a single page.
What files should we send the designer for the financial statements?
Send the final audited financial statements as an editable Word or Excel file, not only a PDF, so the figures can be set without retyping. Confirm with your auditors which version is final before layout starts. A late change to a figure means checking every page where it appears.
