Royal Exchange will neither release its audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019, nor its unaudited financial statements for the period ending March 31, 2020, any time soon.
According to a statement released by the company, both financial statements will not be available for its shareholders and the investing community until four months from now. The statement seen by Nairametrics disclosed that the financial statements would be released on or before June 30, 2020.
Royal Exchange said the reason for the delay was the inability of its subsidiaries to collate their financial results on time. The company explained in the statement published on the website of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) that some of its subsidiaries had not submitted their accounts to their various primary regulators for approval.
While explaining the reason behind the delay, Royal Exchange said, “As a holding company with five (5) different subsidiaries, the audit exercise for the group is yet to be concluded, as some of our subsidiaries are yet to submit their accounts to their various primary regulators for approval.
“Once all the subsidiaries have obtained approval for their respective Financial Statements, consolidation of the Group’s accounts will be concluded and approved by the Board of Director for submission to both the NSE and Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).”
[READ MORE: Royal Exchange Plc appoints new Directors)
Royal Exchange added that, “We are optimistic to submit the 2019 Audited Financial Statements and the Unaudited Financial Statements for the period ending March 31, 2020, to the NSE on or before June 30, 2020.”
Royal Exchange risks financial sanction: The company has a record of delaying the submission of its financial statements to the NSE. So, this is one of many cases. Other quoted companies have already begun submitting their audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019, because according to NSE Listing Rules, companies are expected to submit their financial year-end result latest by 90 days after the end of each year.
Quarterly results are also expected to be submitted at most 60 days after the end of each quarter. Failure to do this will attract monetary sanctions imposed by the NSE. Under the listing rules, a late submission attracts a fine of N100,000 daily for the first 90 calendar days of non-compliance, another N200,000 per day for the next 90 calendar days and a fine of N400,000 per day thereafter until the date of submission.
With these, late submission under the first instance of 90 days could attract N9 million, the additional 90 days will attract N18 million while such delay beyond the first 180 days to the next 180 days could attract as much as N72 million, bringing fines payable by a defaulting company within a year to N99 million.
