Modupe Gbadeyanka
Three companies trading their shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) have been sanctioned for violating a similar rule, Business Post can authoritatively report.
The firms received the big NSE hammer for not filing their financial statements at the appropriate time and for this, the three affected companies were fined a cumulative sum of N39.2 million.
According to a regulatory document obtained by Business Post, the trio sanctioned by the stock exchange are Guinea Insurance, Niger Insurance and Interlinked Technologies.
The most hit was Niger Insurance Plc, which was asked to pay the sum of N19.8 million for its infractions, while Guinea Insurance was sanctioned N19.2 million, with Interlinked Technologies fined N200,000 for filing its results late.
Analysis of the Fines
From the document, Guinea Insurance was asked to pay the sum of N8.2 million for filing its audited 2018 financial statements ended December 31, 2018, on September 20, 2019. For submitting its first quarter financial results for the period ended March 31, 2019 on September 20, 2019, the NSE fined the insurance company N5.6 million, while it was asked to pay another N5.4 million for releasing its earnings for the second quarter of the year ended June 30, 2019 on September 20, 2019.
On the part of Niger Insurance, the stock market regulator sanctioned the firm N8.6 million for submitting its audited financial status for the year ended December 31, 2018 on September 20, 2019. For its late filing of the first quarter results for the period ended March 31, 2019 on September 24, 2019, it got N5.7 million, while it was further told to pay N5.5 million for releasing its second quarter results for the period ended June 30, 2019 on September 24, 2019.
On the part of Interlinked Technologies, it was slapped with a fine of N200,000 for submitting its audited 2019 financial statements for the period ended June 30, 2019 on October 3, 2019.
Business Post gathered that the NSE applied the sanctions on the above three companies in accordance with the Rules for Filing of Accounts and Treatment of Default Filing, Rulebook of The Exchange (Issuers’ Rules).
