Investors in UAC of Nigeria Plc may have to wait till sometime in May before the group’s full-year audited results will be released.
The company’s financial year ends in December, and companies are expected to submit their statements at most 90 days after or on March 31st.
A subsidiary of the conglomerate, UACN Property Development Company (UPDC), has announced a delay in the release of its audited full year 2018 results till the 10th of May 2019.
Reason for the delay In a notice sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday, UAC Property Development Company had indicated that it would file its 2018 audited results sometime in May 2019.
UPDC’s external auditors, Ernst and Young, had indicated that a paragraph on material uncertainty, related to going concern, will be included in audit opinion on the company’s 2018 audited results.
The audit firm is thus required to submit a memorandum to the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) for review, together with the results. The results can’t be announced till all accounting issues are resolved by the FRC.
Why is UACN affected?: UACN is a conglomerate or group of companies. Its subsidiaries have to file their results before it can do the same.
Other listed subsidiaries had fixed earlier dates for their board meetings.
The board of CAP Plc met on Wednesday the 20th of March 2019 to consider its FY 2018 results.
The board of Livestock Feeds Plc met on the 23rd of March 2019 to consider its FY 2018 results.
Problem child: UPDC’s performance has, in the last few years, been a drag on the overall group performance.
Results for the nine months ended September 30, 2018, show that revenue fell from N3.1 billion in 2017 to N1.7 billion in 2018. The company’s losses worsened from N1.7 billion in 2017 to N4.5 billion in 2019.
Even more worrying is that loss from continuing operations amounted to N4.6 billion.
Rescue in the works ?: While UPDC’s results may be dire, key investors in the parent company had moved to take action. In August last year, the company made several board changes.
Folasope Aiyesimoju was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Aiyesimoju is the founder of Themis Capital Management, which in April last year, took up a stake in UPDC’s parent company UAC of Nigeria Plc.
Niun Taiwo was also appointed as substantive Chief Operating Officer (COO). Prior to this, she had been Acting Managing Director since May 2017.
