The Nigeria Exchange Limited has suspended Ekocorp Plc, Premier Paints, and four other companies over failure to comply with regulatory requirements for filing their annual financial reports publicly.
The regulator also placed three companies on delisting watchlists. It approved the process of de-listing two other companies from the daily listing of the NGX over failure to comply with regulatory requirements.
According to the X-financial report obtained by , Greif Nigeria Plc was issued the suspension on June 17, 2022, for commencing a voluntary winding up.
Ekocorp Plc, African Alliance Insurance Plc, Niger Insurance Plc, and Premier Paints Plc were all suspended on July 1, 2022, over failure to file 2021 annual financial statements after the 90-day cure period.
The NGX stated in the X-Compliance report that the companies were suspended pursuant to “The provisions of Rule 3.1, Rules for filing of accounts and treatment of default filing, rulebook of NGX (Issuers’ rules), which provides that: If an issuer fails to file the relevant accounts by the expiration of the cure period, NGX will; send to the issuer a “Second filing deficiency notification” within two business days after the end of the cure period; suspend trading in the issuer’s securities; and notify the Securities and Exchange Commission and the market within 24 hours of the suspension.”
In addition, the Deap Capital Management & Trust Plc and Multi-Trex Integrated Foods Plc were to be placed on the delisting watch-list subject to a failure to file their quarterly compliance report.
Meanwhile, the regulator has approved for the NGX RegCo to begin the delisting process of the Tourist Company of Nigeria Plc, Union Homes Savings & Loans, ASO Savings and Loans Plc DIP NGX RegCo Board approved the regulatory delisting from the official daily listing of the NGX.
The Nigerian Exchange Limited had earlier sanctioned 17 companies N93.92m for failure to file their financial statements after the regulatory 90-cure date.
The sanctions and fines being issued at listed companies for violating regulatory guidelines are meant to protect the interest of all shareholders, an insider in a regulatory agency told The PUNCH.
Speaking with The PUNCH, an insider in the Nigerian Exchange Limited, said “Sanctions may be the first step to see whether a firm that has run afoul of the market standard would repent,”. He noted that the last step in the rung was delisting.
He added that the regulators’ sanction and fining were only meant to help the investors by protecting their interests.
He said that some of the quoted companies had three months’ grace to comply with the public disclosure of their financials but they would neither do the needful nor write to the NGX for an extension of the submission of their accounts.
According to him, whenever the regulator discovered that a company was not performing in compliance with market standards, NGX would write to the Corporate Affairs Commission as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to delist such a company thus it and removed it from the market.
