|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Following the expiration of the 90-day grace period during which listed companies that have December as their financial year end are expected to have released their audited financial statements, eight deposit money banks, seven insurance companies, two mortgage banks, a paint manufacturer, and 6 others have missed this regulatory deadline.
The deposit money banks are Unity Bank, FCMB, Sterling Bank, Diamond Bank, FBN Holdings, Fidelity Bank, Union Bank and Wema Bank. The insurance companies are Equity Assurance, Cornerstone, Stacco, Linkage Assurance, Mutual Benefits, Royal Exchange and Standard Alliance. Aiico Insurance released its audited financial statements on Friday April 6, 2018, a week after the expiration of the deadline.
Others are International Breweries, Lafarge, Multiverse, Abbey and Omoluwabi Mortgage banks, Oando, Meyer and Tourist Company of Nigeria. The NSE rules state that companies must release their audited financial statements 90 days after their financial year has ended, in this case, on or before March 31, 2018.
“This is to inform the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), our esteemed shareholders and other stakeholders that Unity Bank Plc was unable to release its 2017 Audited Financial Statement (AFS) for the year ended 31 December 2017 by March 2018 as required by NSE rules. The AFS has been forwarded to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for review and will be filed with the NSE upon the conclusion of the CBN’s review”, Unity Bank Management said in a note to the NSE.
“ This is to notify our esteemed shareholders and other shareholders about the delay in the filing of Wema bank’s 2017 Audited Financial Statement for the year ended 31st December 2017. The delay arose from the need to obtain the necessary approval before going ahead to publish our 12 mouths Accounts and Financial Statements. We expect to have our results released before the end of April 2018”, Wema Bank said in a note to the NSE.
But Saheed Bashir, a senior analyst with Meristem Securities, one of the leading investment banks in the country, while accepting that banks that operate a holding company structure, which allows such institutions to have many subsidiaries, have justification in delaying their results, he however attributed the delay in other firms to inefficiency.
“Holding companies need time to prepare their audited financial statements because of their subsidiaries. There are issues they need to clarify and resolve with their external auditors. If these companies ask for more time to file in their AFS, that is justifiable. But such reason will not be accepted from companies that do not operate holding company structure”, Bashir said.
“For smaller companies that do not meet this deadline, it is due to inefficiency”, he added.
The NSE Rule 7.4 on the submission of financial reports to the Exchange sub sections A and B indicate that “Every Dealing Member shall submit to The Exchange its annual financial statements, within ninety (90) days of the end of the fiscal year and its quarterly financial statements within forty-five (45) days of the end of the quarter; and any other periodic report within the period stipulated by The Exchange. All Financial statements shall be prepared in accordance with the requirements of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) applicable to the time period covered in such financial statement(s).
“If a Dealing Member fails to comply with this provision, it shall be liable to the following penalties which are subject to review by Council and any change thereto shall be made public by way of a Circular: Failure of a Dealing Member to submit Quarterly Returns on the date due for submission shall attract a penalty of Five Thousand Naira (N5,000) per day ofdefault and the Dealing Member shall be suspended from trading with effect from the first trading day after the due date.
“ Failure of a Dealing Member to submit Audited Financial Statements on the date due for submission shall attract a penalty of Five Thousand Naira (N5,000) per day of default for a maximum of four (4) weeks; Where a Dealing Member fails to submit Annual Financial Statement after four (4) weeks of default, the Dealing Member firm shall forthwith be suspended from trading; Where a Dealing Member is suspended from trading under sub-rule (1) or (3), such suspension shall be lifted upon submission of the Quarterly Returns or Annual Financial Statements”, the NSE rules further stated.
Every year, companies pay millions as penalties for different market infractions such as late filing of quarterly and audited financial statements.
TELIAT SULE
