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Tag: companies

  • Foundation to honour dividend-paying companies

    The Board of Trustees of Bodmas Foundation has announced the commencement of the yearly presentation of dividend payment awards [DP-AWARDS] to the Nigeria’s listed company in the Nigeria capital market, the Board Chairperson, Dame Priscilla Kuye, has said

    The board and management of the DP-Awards said they would track records of dividend payments by all Nigeria’s listed companies on yearly basis and add up each listed company’s record cumulatively for the awards, adding that the awards consideration begins from a company’s year of listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as published in any edition of their annual report

    The Board Chairperson, Dame Kuye emphasised that the DP-Awards are being given to the listed companies as rewards for growing investors wealth through dividend payments and also for contributing to the growth of the Nigeria economy through their positive turnovers that resulted into dividend payment

    Kuye said: “The awards shall enlighten the Nigerian public to the massive wealth pool that dividend payments constitute for investors in Nigerian capital market every year as we would publish every details of dividends payment achieved by each listed company in Nigeria to their shareholders beginning from the start of the Nigeria stock exchange”

    She noted that “Annual dividends payment by the Nigeria’s listed companies account for a significant national wealth pool outside the government and is invariably turned over to the larger Nigeria population by the beneficiary-investors through their numerous economic activities in tne Nigerian economy.The annual DP-Awards presentation shall afford the public the opportunity of measuring the annual sizes of this great wealth pool”

    Kuye assured the public, particularly the stakeholders in the Nigeria capital market of the ability of Bodmas foundation to present each edition of DP-Awards with utmo st diligence and solicited the cooperation of the stakeholders in the onerous task

  • ‘Why companies must invest in community’

    ‘Why companies must invest in community’

    Nonny Ugboma is the Executive Secretary of the MTN Foundation (MTNF), the vehicle for driving MTN’s Corporate Social Responsibility strategy. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Financial Analysis from the University of Warwick, England and a Master’s degree in International Management from King’s College, University of London, England, she joined  MTN in 2003 as a Financial Analyst/Business Planner in the Marketing Division. In this interview with Bukola Afolabi, she speaks on the functions of the Foundation 

    MTN Foundation has received considerable visibility in the media via its interventions in different segments across the length and breadth of Nigeria. What is the strategy behind your intervention projects?

    Let me start by saying MTN Foundation is very appreciative of the media for their untiring efforts at coverage of all the Foundation’s activities and we hope that you would continue to avail us your support. We consider the media as critical in MTN’s quest to improve on the lives of people living in the communities where we operate, and to be a critical agent for social economic development of Nigeria as a whole.

    For us, MTN has adopted corporate culture to do good, it is not only important for us to give back to communities where we operate but it is also smart business. We believe that healthy communities are important to the wellbeing of the society. MTN’s Corporate Social Investment (CSI) is an integral part of the business and so we believe that the Foundation is a vehicle to implement MTN’s CSI agenda. We have adopted a systematic approach in delivering our interventions. We consider things like wide impact, replicability of projects – we must be able to replicate projects across the six geo-political zones of the country. We also look at the sustainability of the projects to ensure that the impact is long-lasting

     You mentioned that MTNF’s projects have a wide reach. Can you be more specific?

    MTN Foundation has 20 projects located in over 300 project sites in the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT under three core areas – Education, Economic Empowerment and Health.  The reality is that we are unable to intervene in all the areas of need nationwide, but we certainly hope that we can act as catalysts to encourage other organisations and individuals to do their bit by giving back.  Prior to the Foundation being set up, a study was done and the three core areas of intervention were agreed.  Subsequently, stakeholder forums were held under each of the three portfolios to prioritise areas of needs that we as a Foundation should concentrate on.

    What do you consider critical when selecting your implementation partners?

    For us to deliver the quality of projects that we conceptualise in the Foundation, we have instituted clear project consultants’ selection criteria. It is a rigorous process and we go through this with the procurement department to determine the best fits with regard to competence and values. Competence is very key as the organisation must have the technical ability to roll out the project. Values are also very important to us in terms of corporate governance and ethics.  These two points are critical agents that can affect the spirit of partnership. In the past, we have had to end relationships with project consultants because they could not deliver on the projects assigned to them. We have also ended relationships with organisations whose corporate governance fell short of the acceptable level. So they go hand in hand. An organisation can have all the competences but if their values do not align with that of MTN’s we would not engage them in any of our activities.

    Your initiatives in the health sector have been lauded by many stakeholders. You seem to focus a lot of attention and resources on the health sector. Could you tell us why this is so?

    Well the importance of good health in the life of an individual cannot be overemphasised. We are very proud of the interventions we have made under our health portfolio because a healthy nation is a wealthy nation. Some of our interventions under the health portfolio are the Eyesight Restoration Scheme, Y’ello Doctor Mobile Clinic, Medical Support Project under which we have Haemodialysis and Mammography Centres. We support people living with the sickle cell disorder, we support orphanages, we engage in community health screening and we have taken care of many children who were in need of medical intervention here and abroad. I guess health initiatives tend to touch the flesh more because we are either restoring eyesight or we are giving hope through treatment or curing one form of ailment or the other. We also attribute the same level of importance to the other portfolios we have which are education and economic empowerment because they all go hand in hand. We cannot speak about a healthy nation without mentioning education and empowerment really so we are trying to maintain a balance with regard to the projects that we roll out. We try as much as possible to ensure that sustainability is woven into each of our unique projects. The definition of sustainability is different depending on the project so you could have sustainability for income generating activities. For example, at the haemodialysis centres that we have provided, patients pay a reduced fee of N15,000 into the treating hospital’s account compared to an average of N35,000 at other unsubsidised centres across the country.  This account is jointly managed by the project consultant and the hospital authorities and the generated funds in this case are used to maintain and keep the facility running.  This is an illustration of sustainability from an income generation perspective.  Now in the case of the Eyesight Restoration project people may ask, what is the sustainability there? For us, the fact that we have helped people to regain the use of their eyes means that we have contributed to them leading a sustainable life. Ultimately, by helping them to regain their eyesight, we are making it possible for them to continue their education or employment that way they are positioned to be empowered economically. That, to us, is also a sustainable intervention.  We also have the situation where we give out scholarships to university undergraduates. The sustainability here is the fact that we are providing students with financial assistance to enable them get education and upon graduation they will be able to lead and maintain a sustainable life, all things being equal. Bottom line is that we are flexible in defining sustainability and ultimately it is the longevity of the impact of the project in the lives of the beneficiaries.

    What were the factors you considered before embarking on the EYERIS project? Did you consider sight impairment to be more critical than say, malaria, HIV and AIDS, among other diseases that afflict many people?

    The fact is, we consider every debilitating and adverse circumstance to be tragic and awful and can’t say one situation is better than the other. Regrettably, we cannot intervene in every area. For HIV and AIDS, for example, we’ve had a number of initiatives in the past that have touched lives like voluntary counselling and testing centres. As I explained earlier, we help sickle cell sufferers. We have five sickle cell clinics across the country, we have haemodialysis and mammography centres and so on and so forth. But for the Eyesight Restoration scheme, we are aware that the incident of cataract is quite high in Nigeria. Cataract is known to be one of the most common causes of preventable blindness and has very significant social-economic impact on the Nigerian economy. So for us, it was an area we could easily go into and we had the right project partner – the Eye Foundation. The idea was to spend three weeks in each beneficiary state and try as much as possible to screen the eyes of patients and give treatment to those deserving it and conduct cataract surgeries for those who require it. For the EYERIS project, we had the endorsement of the Federal Ministry of Health and we implemented it in six states – Osun, Niger, Abia, Delta, Sokoto and Jigawa. It was a very collaborative experience in these states. You know, when we had the expressions of interest published in the media, many states wanted to be part of it so we shortlisted states where we conducted verification inspections and finally we selected those who were able to provide sites for the exercise to be conducted. Each state must also provide the logistics such as transportation for the beneficiaries to get to the screening and surgery venues. So these six states emerged successful and the project was implemented in the states between April and November 2013 and we touched the lives of 33,000 people across the six states. The 33,000 beneficiaries were broken down as follows:  over ten thousand cataract surgeries were performed; twelve thousand pairs of glasses were also given out to those who needed them and in addition we gave out drugs to about eleven thousand patients to treat the various eye conditions they had. This project is very heartwarming especially when you see individuals wrestle back their dignity and their economic empowerment from the scourge of blindness. There are several personal stories of individuals whom I saw when I went round the beneficiary states.

    Do you have any success stories from the perspective of your beneficiaries that you would love to share with us?

    Yes we have quite a lot of them from all our projects but I will say this one for the EyeRIS project. There is this particular gentleman in Delta State that comes to mind, he used to be a commercial motorcyclist commonly called Okada rider and sadly  he lost his sight in both eyes due to cataract and he is the bread winner of the family. He was first brought in by his wife and other family members for the surgery one eye at a time because our surgeons don’t operate on both eyes at the same time. When this gentleman came out of the second surgery, he was alone and the fact that he sat on his motorbike and drove after healing from the surgeries was really remarkable. His family members were extremely elated and the out pouring of gratitude to the Foundation for providing succour is most touching. We have also had lots of stories around our Medical Intervention scheme wherein we help families who have children with congenital conditions especially those of them with holes in their heart. We helped them with the necessary treatment here and in India. We are always very thrilled to see them when they return hale and hearty laughing and running around like normal children. There is a particular child from the Heart of Gold Hospice who had a Fistula and as a result she could not pass out faeces like normal children and she had to be in diapers even at nine years old.

    A surgery was done and a pathway was created for her to pass out faeces like every other child like herself. This is very moving and touching. I can be here all day talking about success stories. There is the story of the MTNF MUSON Scholars who have been undergoing music training at MUSON School of Music through our scholarship programme. Nearly 200 students have graduated with diplomas from this institution in six years. To see these students graduate from this institution and go on to further their studies in schools here in Nigeria and abroad is very satisfactory. Three students from the first set became the first African students to graduate with honours from the University of Dayton, Ohio. Some have become professional performers singing in concerts with the likes of London Philharmonic Orchestra, some have also become music teachers teaching music in primary and secondary schools. It gives us great pleasure to know that the graduates from this institution are successfully engaged. There are so many success stories to talk about should we talk about people who have used our haemodialysis centres across the country and how their family members show their appreciation when we visit these centres for evaluation purposes.

    Or do you want us to talk about the scholarship which is worth two hundred thousand naira that we are giving to brilliant but indigent tertiary students which we have also extended to the blind students? So there are so many success stories to share.  Since its inception, the Foundation had spent N10.2 billion in carrying out its CSR obligations and we have over 300 project sites in the 36 states and FCT. So with that kind of reach you would have lots and lots of success stories coupled with lots and lots of requests which also takes us back to the fact that we can’t do everything.

  • Default at your own risk, CAC threatens companies

    Companies and businesses defaulting in compliance with the provision of the companies and Allied Matters Act, CAMA, will soon face severe sanctions.

    In a statement by the Director, Public Affairs, Mr. Churchill Williams, the CAC has set up a special enforcement committee which had commenced crack down on the operation of some companies.

    He said: “The special enforcement committee had completed the first phase of on-site examination exercise in the Federal Capital Territory and had visited various markets, shopping malls and held collaborative meeting with relevant organisations to sensitise the public on the post incorporation obligation of registered companies and the consequences of operating unregistered businesses.

    “A total of 474 were penalised for non compliance during the exercise in the FCT. The next phase of the enforcement will be carried out in the 36 states of the federation.

    “Under the provision of the companies and Allied Matters Act, CAMA, every company, business name and incorporated association, nongovernmental organisation (NGO), are required to file annual returns every year which informs the commission of the status of a registered entity.”

    Williams said, under section 548 of CAMA, all companies are required to display their registered names and registration number at their offices. Under section 553 of CAMA, every banking or insurance company or deposit, provident or benefit society is required to prepare and display in a conspicuous manner their statement of affairs twice in a year.

    Companies complying with the provision of CAMA stand the benefit of enjoying unhindered treatment of their post registration filling with the commission whereas filings from defaulting companies are rejected out rightly until they update their record.

  • Companies rush to avoid compulsory delisting

    Companies that were recently earmarked for compulsory delisting by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) have been making overtures to the Exchange amid frantic efforts to address their corporate governance failures and avoid delisting from the stock market.

    Sources told The Nation that several companies have already reached out to the NSE with explanations on the reasons for their corporate governance failures and plans to address the concerns of the regulator.

    The NSE recently issued a notice of delisting on 21 companies that have failed continuously to meet the corporate governance standards at the stock market. The NSE said it decided on the delisting to protect investors from trading on securities with serious corporate governance failures.

    The affected companies included Investment and Allied Insurance Plc, Goldlink Insurance, Pinnacle Point Group, Adswitch, Afroil, Rokana Industry, IPWA, West African Glass Industry, Nigeria Wire and Cable, Starcomms, Daar Communication, Mtech, Big Treat, G.Cappa, FTN Cocoa Processing and UTC Nigeria.

    Others included Stockvis, Nigeria Sewing Machine, Jos International Breweries, Capital Oil and Golden Guinea. However, Adswitch had earlier filed for voluntary delisting while Pinnacle Point Group is in the process of being wound up.

    According to the Exchange, while the five of Stockvis, Nigeria Sewing Machine, Jos International Breweries, Capital Oil and Golden Guinea were being delisted because they failed to regularise their listing status, other companies were being delisted because they have failed to submit requisite financial and operational statements.

    “The regulatory action is necessary to protect investing public from trading in the securities of entities with no current information regarding their financial status,” the NSE stated.

    The NSE stated that the delisting of the companies would take effect in September, in line with three-month notice required for such action.

    All the companies slated for delisting had been dormant and mostly at their nominal values. Companies such as Big Treat, Starcomms, Capital Oil and Afroil have been subjects of regulatory investigations.

    The sources said some of the companies have started addressing some of the key concerns raised by the NSE, especially the non-availability of their financial statements and operational reports.

    One of the companies-FTN Cocoa Processing Plc has already released its two outstanding audited reports and accounts for the 2012 and 2013 business years.

    The sources indicated that the companies have been under pressure from shareholders, creditors and other stakeholders since the issuance of notice of delisting.

    NSE’s Head, Legal and Regulation Division, Tinuade Awe, confirmed to The nation that the Exchange has gotten overtures from some of the companies.

    “We are going to give these requests careful consideration,” Awe said.

    She explained that the notice of delisting was a notice of intention of the NSE and companies with commitments to redress the corporate governance failures can still avoid the regulatory hammer.

    A source in one of the earmarked companies said they were making all efforts to stave off the compulsory delisting, noting that the company values its listing on the NSE.

    The source blamed the harsh operating environment for the failures of the company adding that the management of the company was preparing detailed presentation to be made to the NSE.

    Many shareholders were against the delisting of the companies, noting that delisting would worsen shareholders’ fate. However, shareholders who spoke to The Nation recently had called on the capital market regulators to probe the utilisation of the funds earlier raised by those companies and the previous projections made by the companies.

    Chairman, Ibadan Zone Shareholders Association (IBZA), Chief Sola Abodunrin, said the delisting of the companies could discourage investors from future participation in new issues as most of them only came to the market to raise funds without returns to shareholders.

    According to him, the companies did not follow through with their purposes of the fund raising and mismanaged investors’ funds.

    Abodunrin, a member of the board of trustees of the Investors Protection Fund (IPF) of the NSE, said delisting would be worse for the investors in the companies as they won’t be able to retrieve their investments.

    He said the companies would not adhere to any iota of corporate governance after delisting and shareholders would not have any hope of holding the companies to account.

    National Coordinator, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Sir Sunny Nwosu, also said the NSE and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should go beyond the delisting to determine the extent of management’s culpability in the companies’ misfortunes.

    Another shareholders’ leader, Alhaji Gbadebo Olatokunbo, called for a thorough probe of the management of the companies.

    According to him, the regulators should be able to extricate failures that were due to environmental constraints from those due to managerial failures.

  • NSE slams N100,000 weekly fines on 80 companies

    NSE slams N100,000 weekly fines on 80 companies

    The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has imposed a weekly fine of not less than N100, 000 each on all the companies that failed to submit their 2013 audited annual reports and accounts by the expiration of the extended deadline of April 30, 2014.

    The NSE, in a response to exclusive media enquiry by The Nation, stated that it has no intention to grant further extension of the April 30, 2014 deadline. The NSE stated that barely half of companies with December 31, 2013 year-end met the deadline and that defaulters will be sanctioned in line with Appendix 111 of the NSE Greenbook, which contains listing requirements.

    Section 14 of the Appendix 111 states that “any late submission of accounts shall attract a fine of N100, 000 per week from the due date until the date of submission” while “a listed company who contravenes any of the provisions of the Listing Rules and General Undertaking and fails to pay the penalty imposed on it for such contravention on or before the due date shall be liable to a further fine of N300,000 in addition to N25,000 per day for the period the violation continues”.

    Besides, the sanctioned companies are expected to state in their subsequent annual report details of contraventions and the sanctions imposed for such contraventions.

    According to the NSE, there were 136 companies with December year-end but only 71 companies had submitted by the close of working hours.

    “The Exchange has granted a one month extension to all listed companies irrespective of their year-end to submit their audited accounts and reports. There is no present intention to grant any further extensions,” the NSE stated.

    The Nation’s check indicated that the NSE has now tagged 80 companies with its “Below Listing Standard” (BLS), which confirms their failure to submit their audited annual reports within the deadline and also confirms the imposition of sanctions. The 80 companies included 65 companies with December year-end and some 15 companies with year-end within the previous year.

    The sanctioned companies included West Africa Glass Industries Plc, FTN Cocoa Processors Plc, Cappa & D’alberto Plc, Big Treat Plc, Dangote Flour Mills Plc, National Salt Company Nigeria Plc, UTC Nigeria Plc, African Alliance Insurance Plc, Aiico Insurance Plc, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc, Continental Reinsurance Plc, Cornerstone Insurance Plc, Equity Assurance Plc, Goldlink Insurance Plc, Great Nigeria Insurance Plc, Guinea Insurance Plc, Intercontinental Wapic Insurance Plc, International Energy Insurance, Lasaco Assurance Plc, Law Union And Rock Insurance Plc, Linkage Assurance Plc, Mutual Benefit Assurance Plc, Nem Insurance Company, Niger Insurance Company, Oasis Insurance Plc, Prestige Assurance Company Plc, Regency Alliance Insurance Plc, Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, Staco Insurance Plc, Standard Alliance Insurance Plc, Unic Insurance Plc, Unity Kapital Assurance Plc, Universal Insurance Company Plc, Fortis Microfinance Bank Plc, Abbey Building Society Plc, Royal Exchange Plc, Ekocorp and Evans Medical Plc.

    Others were Omatek Ventures Plc, NCR (Nigeria) Plc, E-Tranzact International Plc, Starcomms Plc, MTI Plc, African Paints (Nigeria) Plc, IPWA Plc, Austin Laz & Company Plc, Nigerian Wire & Cable Plc, Afroil Plc, Oando Plc, Beco Petroleum Product Plc, Conoil Plc, R.T Briscoe Plc, Ikeja Hotel Plc, Daar Communications Plc, Studio Press(Nigeria) Plc, Smart Products Nigeria Plc, Rokana Industries Plc, Capital Oil Plc, Union Ventures & Petroleum Plc, Adswitch Plc, Multi-Trex Integrated Foods Plc, C & I Leasing Plc, Tourist Company of Nigeria Plc, Aso Savings & Loans Plc, Costain (W.A) Plc, G Cappa Plc, Union Homes Savings & Loans Plc, Nigerian German Chemical Plc, Thomas Wyatt Nigeria Plc, Premier Breweries Plc, Rak Unity Petroleum Plc, Golden Guinea Breweries Plc, Premier Breweries Plc, Lennards (Nigeria) Plc, DN Tyre & Rubber Plc, P.S Mandrides & Company Plc, John Holt Plc, Deap Capital Mgt & Trust Plc and Juli Plc.

    Some market pundits said the NSE should conduct operational review of companies that have persistently been fallen short of corporate governance standards with a view to determining the real reasons behind their persistent failures.

    A report on sanctions and fines for similar defaults in 2013 obtained yesterday showed that the Exchange slammed about N105.9 million on 48 companies that delayed their results. The fines ranged between N200, 000 and N6.8 million.

    The NSE had slammed some N60.2 million as fines on 34 companies for failure to meet deadlines for 2011 audited reports. With a range of N3.8 million and N100, 000, average fine for the year was N1.77 million.

    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 is March 31.

    However, on the heels of exclusive report by The Nation that less than one-third of the companies submitted their annual reports by March 31, 2014, the NSE had extended the March 31 deadline for a period of one month, giving companies that operate the Gregorian calendar year as their business year up till April 30, 2014 to submit their audited earnings reports for the year ended December 31, 2013.

    The tagging of the defaulting companies with “BLS” serves as caveat and red alert to investors that the tagged companies are operating below expected corporate governance standards as set out by the listing rules at the NSE.

    NSE uses four different kinds of tags or symbols to alert investors about the status of each quoted company. These include “BLS”, the first degree alert level indicating a company that has not complied with post listing rules such as late submission of financial statements, unauthorised publication, and management failures among others.

    Also, financial services companies such as bank and insurance companies awaiting regulatory approval will carry the appropriate symbol of awaiting regulatory approval (ARA). Companies that are undergoing a capital reconstruction exercise including supplementary issue, share buyback, split, share reconstruction among others will be tagged with capital reconstruction exercise (CRE) while companies that have indicated that they will be delisting or companies that are being delisted at the instance of the regulator would be flagged with delisting in process (DIP) symbol.

  • NSE may sanction 50 companies over delayed results

    NSE may sanction 50 companies over delayed results

    •Slams N106m fines on 48 companies

    A head of today’s deadline for extended timeline for quoted companies to submit their audited reports and accounts for the year ended December 31, 2013, there are indications that the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) may sanction not less than 50 companies over their failure to submit their period within the extended period.

    The Nation’s investigation at the NSE showed that several companies have not submitted their audited reports while  others were making last-minute efforts to scale the deadline and avoid the poor corporate governance tag and sanction of the NSE.

    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 Monday, March 31.

    However, on the heels of exclusive report by The Nation that less than one-third of the companies submitted their annual reports by March 31, 2014, the NSE had extended the March 31 deadline for a period of one month, giving companies that operate the Gregorian calendar year as their business year up till April 30, 2014 to submit their audited earnings reports for the year ended December 31, 2013.

    The NSE had in an emailed response to media enquiry by The Nation attributed the extension to several requests for extension by companies. During the extended period, the companies will not be liable for any sanction.

    A source at the Exchange yesterday ruled out possibility of another general extension, implying that the NSE would start applying relevant sanctions and tags as from May 2, 2014.

    A headcount by The Nation indicated that not less than 50 companies might miss today’s deadline as several companies have not made required announcement for scheduled board meeting to consider their audited reports.

    A report on sanctions and fines for similar defaults in 2013 obtained showed that the Exchange slammed about N105.9 million on 48 companies that delayed their results. The fines ranged between N200, 000 and N6.8 million.

    The NSE had slammed some N60.2 million as fines on 34 companies for failure to meet deadlines for 2011 audited reports. With a range of N3.8 million and N100, 000, average fine for the year was N1.77 million.

    The source at the NSE said the sanctions were not intended to generate incomes for the Exchange but to serve mainly as deterrents against corporate failures.

    Meanwhile, market pundits said they expected the momentum of submission to be high today, since companies will want to avoid the double-sanction of monetary fines and “naming and shaming” of the NSE.

    Companies that have submitted their 2013 results included Unilever Nigeria, FCMB Group, Nigeria Aviation Handling Company (Nahco), Julius Berger Nigeria, Livestock Feeds, United Bank for Africa (UBA), First Aluminium Nigeria, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, Sterling Bank, Dangote Cement, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria, Berger Paints, Lafarge Cement Wapco Nigeria, Cadbury Nigeria, Zenith Bank, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp), Guaranty Trust Bank, Nestle Nigeria, Forte Oil and Africa Prudential Registrars among others.

  • Companies scurry to meet earnings deadline

    Companies scurry to meet earnings deadline

    •Sterling Bank, GSK, Berger Paints, Abbey, others meet on returns

    Ahead of the March 31 deadline for quoted companies to submit their audited reports and accounts for the immediate past year, several companies are hurrying up arrangements for board meeting on their earnings reports for the year ended December 31, last year.

    Post-listing rules at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) require that quoted companies submit their earnings reports, not later than three months after the expiration of the period. Most quoted companies including banks, major manufacturers, oil and gas firms, 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 is on Monday, March 31.

    Market sources said the tempo of board meetings would increase in the days ahead as several companies are expected to round off arrangements for their corporate earnings reports.

    Four firms have indicated that they have scheduled meetings to discuss the earnings reports and possible dividend payouts to shareholders. These included GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria (GSK), Berger Paints Nigeria Plc and Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc.

    The board of GSK is scheduled to meet this Friday. According to the agenda of the meeting, the directors will discuss the 2013 audited financial statements, the amount to be recommended to shareholders as final dividend, bonus issue and the date and venue of the next annual general meeting.

    Directors of Abbey Mortgage will meet on Thursday next week to consider the company’s audited financial statements for the 2013 business year.

    Also, the Board of Berger Paints is scheduled to meet on March 20 to consider the 2013 yearly reports and possible dividend payout.

    Market sources said they expected the momentum of board meetings to increase in the days ahead; giving that compliance within deadline is a measure of good corporate governance.

    NSE tags and applies fines on companies that fail to meet earnings reports’ deadline. Under the corporate governance and rules compliance assessment report known as X-Compliance Report, NSE identified four different kinds of tags or symbols to alert investors about the status of each quoted company. These included below listings standard (BLS), the first degree alert level indicating a company that has not complied with post listing rules such as late submission of financial statements, unauthorised publication, management failures, among others.

    Also, financial services companies such as bank and insurance companies awaiting regulatory approval will carry the appropriate symbol of awaiting regulatory approval (ARA). Companies that are undergoing a capital reconstruction exercise including supplementary issue, share buyback, split, share reconstruction among others will be tagged with capital reconstruction exercise (CRE) while companies that have indicated that they will be delisting or companies that are being delisted at the instance of the regulator would be flagged with delisting in process (DIP) symbol.

    Latest compliance report by the NSE dated February 28, 2014 indicated that five companies have so far submitted their audited reports for the year ended December 31, 2013. These early birds included Forte Oil, Nigerian Breweries, McNichols Consolidated, Africa Prudential Registrars and Nestle Nigeria. However, The Nation’s check indicated that Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) has also submitted its report.

     

  • Companies scurry to meet earnings reports deadline

    Several companies are hastening arrangements for board meeting for the approval of their third quarter accounts ahead of the November 15 deadline for the submission of the nine-month report.

    Market sources said the tempo of board meetings would increase in the days ahead as several companies are expected to round off arrangements for their corporate earnings reports.

    Market sources indicated that they expected the latter part of this week and next week to witness influx of corporate earnings reports, giving that compliance within deadline is a measure of good corporate governance.

    Post-listing rules of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) state that audited annual accounts of companies should be submitted within three months after the year end while quarterly financial statements are expected to be made available 45 days after the end of the quarter.

    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 thee third quarter report for the period ended September 30, 2013 is November 15, 2013.

    NSE tags and applies fines on companies that fail to meet earnings reports’ deadline. Under the corporate governance and rules compliance assessment report known as X-Compliance Report, NSE identified four different kinds of tags or symbols to alert investors about the status of each quoted company. These included below listings standard (BLS), the first degree alert level indicating a company that has not complied with post listing rules such as late submission of financial statements, unauthorized publication, management failures among others.

    Also, financial services companies such as bank and insurance companies awaiting regulatory approval will carry the appropriate symbol of awaiting regulatory approval (ARA). Companies that are undergoing a capital reconstruction exercise including supplementary issue, share buyback, split, share reconstruction among others will be tagged with capital reconstruction exercise (CRE) while companies that have indicated that they will be delisting or companies that are being delisted at the instance of the regulator would be flagged with delisting in process (DIP) symbol.

     

  • ‘CAC should not be empowered to remove companies’ directors’

    Shareholders have flayed the call by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for the amendment of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 1990 with a view to confer on the Commission statutory powers to remove erring directors o companies.

    President, Ibadan Zone Shareholders Association (IBZA), Chief Sola Abodunrin, said empowering CAC to remove directors would undermine one of the fundamental rights of the shareholders, who are the owners of the companies.

    He said the board represents the interests of the shareholders and should be accountable ultimately to the shareholders, rather than to a government body.

    According to him, CAC can seek to improve corporate governance by ensuring compliance with disclosure requirements and providing the public with all information about a company.

    He said the CAMA has adequately empowered the Commission to deal with infractions by directors noting that CAC should step up its enforcement activities.

    The Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Mr Bello Mahmud, recently indicated the intention of the Commission to seek amendment to CAMA with particular reference to statutory power to remove erring directors.

    According to him, the CAMA required substantial amendments to strengthen the regulatory and enforcement powers of the Commission.

    He noted that CAMA, which has been in operation for almost two decades, is craving for substantial amendments, especially in the areas of regulatory and enforcement powers, on-line registration of companies and penalties.

    “Of utmost importance, the Commission is seeking the power to remove erring directors and officers of companies in line with the practice in most registries globally. This should be granted and CAC should be assisted to have an instrument to enforce its regulatory powers and sanitize the business environment,” Mahmud was reported to have told a national assembly delegation on oversight visit to the Commission.

    According to him, it is becoming obvious that the corporate landscape is heavily hamstrung by several provisions in CAMA which impedes contemporary business practices in the light of national global reforms.

     

  • Companies to seek further extension of earnings report deadline

    Barely 10 days to the expiration of the extended deadline for the submission of audited earnings reports by most companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), indications have emerged that several companies might not be able to meet the May 3 new deadline.

    Less than 20 per cent of companies that are expected to submit their earnings reports within the timeline have submitted, a slowdown that many analysts said have hampered market situation in recent period.

    Post-listing rules at the NSE require that quoted companies should submit their reports, not later than three months after the expiration of the period.

    Most quoted companies including 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 is March 31. However, the NSE provides that where a filing due date falls on a weekend or holiday, the filing will fall due on the next business day. Since March 31 fell on Sunday while April 1 was a public holiday in commemoration of Easter Monday, the initial due date for the deadline was Tuesday, April 2, 2013.

    However, less than 10 per cent of companies expected to submit their reports meet the initial deadline. The NSE thereafter extended the deadline for all quoted companies by 30 days as a general concession citing challenges being faced by companies, especially with regards to adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

    The extension came a day after The Nation exclusively reported that banks’ results might fall below earnings report due date of April 2, 2013 due to issues around IFRS and Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) approval.

    The Nation’s investigation showed most companies which are expected to submit their earnings reports might still fail to meet the deadline as first-time adopters of IFRS struggled with conversion and regulatory challenges.

    The financial services sector, NSE’s largest and dominant sector, is the worst hit with most companies still facing uncertain submission timeline as at the time of filing this report. Besides the scrutiny of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), NSE and Financial Reporting Council (FRC), financial services companies have to undergo prior approval processes of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), which many operators said appeared overwhelmed by the voluminous reports.

    Many companies said they still hope to meet the deadline while some indicated that they would seek for extension after a review of their chances next week.

    In a statement announcing the extension, the NSE had alluded to challenges being faced by companies, which are expected to start comply with the IFRS.

    According to the Exchange, the extension was an intervention to ensure listed companies present their audited and interim repots accurately as well as provide assurance to businesses and advisors affected by the early adoption of IFRS and levels of regulatory approvals which now includes Financial Reporting Council (FRC).

    General Manager, Legal and Regulation Division, NSE, Ms. Tinu Awe, said the Exchange was in consultation with FRC and other primary regulators on ways of enhancing timely and accurate reporting.

    “While we believe that the timely disclosure of financial information is critical to stakeholders in the capital market as well as investors, the challenges which the entities are facing are germane. It is in view of the extenuating circumstances that the Exchange is granting all listed companies an extended filing date of 30 days from the due date of the required periodic financial submissions,” Awe said.

    She pointed out that during the extended period, the NSE would not apply the tag of Below Listings Standard (BLS) on the names of the companies while it would not also impose fines on the companies.

    NSE tags and applies fines on companies that fail to meet earnings reports’ deadline. Under the corporate governance and rules compliance assessment report known as X-Compliance Report, NSE identified four different kinds of tags or symbols to alert investors about the status of each quoted company. These included below listings standard (BLS), the first degree alert level indicating a company that has not complied with post listing rules such as late submission of financial statements, unauthorised publication, management failures among others.

    Also, financial services companies such as bank and insurance companies awaiting regulatory approval will carry the appropriate symbol of awaiting regulatory approval (ARA).

    Companies that are undergoing a capital reconstruction exercise including supplementary issue, share buyback, split, and share reconstruction among others will be tagged with capital reconstruction exercise (CRE) while companies that have indicated that they will be delisting or companies that are being delisted at the instance of the regulator would be kicked off with the Delisting in Process (DIP) symbol.