As the deadline for quoted companies to submit their audited reports and accounts for the year ended December 31, 2014 expired yesterday, there are indications that the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) may sanction some 150 companies over their failure to submit their period within the period.
Post-listing rules at the NSE require quoted companies to submit their earnings reports, not later than three months after the expiration of the period. Most quoted companies including all banks, major manufacturers, oil and gas companies, breweries and cement companies use the 12-month Gregorian calendar year as their business year. The business year thus terminates on December 31.
NSE’s regulatory filing calendar indicates that the deadline for submission of annual report for companies with Gregorian calendar business year was yesterday.
The Nation’s check at the NSE yesterday showed that several companies have not submitted their audited reports while several other companies were making last-minute efforts to scale the deadline and avoid the poor corporate governance tag and sanction of the NSE.
A headcount by The Nation indicated that less than a third of quoted companies have submitted their audited earnings report. There are more than 230 companies quoted on the NSE. Less than 60 companies have submitted their annual reports as at the last count.
Companies that have submitted their 2014 audited results included Unilever Nigeria, FCMB Group, Nigeria Aviation Handling Company (Nahco), Julius Berger Nigeria, Livestock Feeds, United Bank for Africa (UBA), First Aluminium Nigeria, Sterling Bank, Dangote Cement, Lafarge Africa and Cadbury Nigeria Plc.
Others included Zenith Bank, Transcorp Hotel, Guaranty Trust Bank, Nestle Nigeria, Forte Oil, Africa Prudential Registrars, Chams Plc, United Capital, Caverton Offshore Support Services, Eterna, Mobil Oil Nigeria, Fidson Healthcare, Total Nigeria, Greif Nigeria, Unity Bank, Wema Bank, Courteville Business Solutions, Wapic Insurance and Nigerian Breweries among others.
-The Nation
