According to the listing rules of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, all quoted companies in the country are expected to submit their audited financial statements for full-year 2018 latest March 31st, 2019.
But judging from the way things are going, some of them will not be able to meet this deadline. This is not the first time some of them will be defaulting on their listing requirement.
The companies, most of whom operate in the insurance sub-subsector, have the same excuse for their impending late filing of financial reports.
According to separate public disclosures issued, yesterday, to the Nigerian Stock Exchange by these companies, the companies cited NAICOM’s directive on the adoption and implementation of the IFRS 9 on Financial Instruments and IFRS 4 on Insurance Contracts.
A statement by Universal Insurance Plc disclosed the Nigerian Stock Exchange had been approached, to request for a time extension before the company’s 2018 financial report can be submitted. The company’s auditors’ advised that the successful implementation of the new accounting standards would ultimately delay the completion of the audit process.
It was not clearly stated in the statement when the company’s financial report should now be expected.
Similarly, Law Union and Rock Insurance Plc also blamed the IFRS accounting standards for the delay in filing its financial report, whilst noting that it has received permission from the NSE to file the report in April.
Meanwhile, Cornerstone Insurance Plc, in s statement, informed the NSE that it is anticipating a delay in the filing of its financial statement because the financial reports of all its subsidiaries are yet to be filed to NAICOM. The company also promised to ensure that the report is published latest June 30th, 2019.
“The anticipated delay is due to the requirement of the National lnsurance Commission (NAICOM), that the accounts of a subsidiary company must be submitted and approved by NAICOM before that of the parent company will be considered by NAICOM. ln view of this, the 2018 Audited Financial Statements of FIN lnsurance Company Limited, a subsidiary of Cornerstone, will have to be reviewed and approved by NAICOM before the Company’s 20L8 Audited Financial Statements will be submitted for review and approval.
ln view of the above therefore, we expect to file the Company’s consolidated Audited Financial Statements for the year ended 31’t December, 2018 with The Exchange on or before 30th June, 2019 and affirm our commitment to meeting the timeline sought.”
Other insurance companies such as Royal Exchange Plc and African Alliance Insurance Plc also cited the same issue for its late filing of their financial reports.
Each of these companies apologised for any form of inconvenience the situation may have caused the investing public.
However, this is not the first some of the companies have defaulted on the filing of their financial reports. As we reported earlier, the NSE imposed the sum of N429.5 million on some companies as fines for failure to file financial reports as at when due. African Alliance Insurance Plc, Goldlink Insurance Plc, and Standard Alliance Insurance Plc were among the companies fined.
