One year and four months after it was last suspended on November 1, 2018 and barely one year after it was lift, the management of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) again said it may once more suspend the shares of the nation’s once renown stationeries maker- Thomas Wyatt Nigeria Plc for the same offence- failure to render its quarterly unaudited accounts.
Trading in the company’s shares has in the past three years been suspended thrice.
The move, the NSE said in a statement by Godstime Iwenekhai, Head, Listings Regulation Department of the NSE, follows the company’s failure to “file its Third Quarter Unaudited Financial Statements (UFS) for the period ended 31 December 2019,” which became due on January 30, 2020.
The notice, the statement noted, is “pursuant to Rule 2.2.1, Rules for Filing of Accounts and Treatment of Default Filing, Rulebook of The Exchange.”
Continuing, the NSE said “by virtue of non-filing of the Q3 UFS by the due date, Thomas Wyatt violated the provision of Rule 1.1.2, Rules for Filing of Accounts and Treatment of Default Filing, Rulebook of The Exchange (Issuers’ Rules) (“Default Filing Rules”), which provides that “Every Issuer shall file its unaudited quarterly accounts not later than thirty (30) calendar days after the relevant quarter…”
By virtue of the provisions of Rule 2.2.1 of the Default Filing Rules, the exchange said it has since issued the management of Thomas Wyatt a First Deficiency Filing Notice (FDFN), whose purpose is “to notify the Company of the infraction and to grant it three days to provide the following information to the public:
a. That the Q3 UFS had not been filed by the due date;
b. A detailed explanation of the reason(s) for the delay; and
c. The anticipated filing date, or state that the Company is unable to indicate an anticipated filing date, and reasons for such inability to indicate the anticipated filing date.
Should the company’s board continually fail to comply with The Exchange’s directives set forth in the FDFN within the stipulated timeline and in the light of its continued breach of Rule 2.2.1 of the Default Filing Rules, the NSE advised investors “to trade with caution on the securities of Thomas Wyatt in the absence of up to date financial information from the Company.
The exchange said it will, however, “continue to engage with the Company and may take the following additional steps should the Company fail to comply, and file its Q3 UFS AFS within the ninety-day cure period stipulated by Rule 2.1.1 of the Default Filing Rules.
As part of the measures, the NSE will send the management of Thomas Wyatt a Second Filing Deficiency Notification” within two business days after the expiration of the ninety-day cure period; and thereafter suspend trading on its shares.
Please be guided accordingly.
Recall that the NSE, on November 1, 2018, suspended Thomas Wyatt, along with Golden Guinea Breweries, Unity Bank Plc, Fortis Microfinance Bank, Thomas Wyatt Nigeria, Multi-Trex Integrated Foods and Deap Capital Management & Trust, via Market Bulletin of November 1, 2018, with Reference Number: NSE/RD/LRD/MB01/18/11/01.
The suspension was subsequently lifted on March 1 9.
According to Investdata Research, before then, the NGSE had also suspended trading in the shares of Thomas Wyatt, along with Academy Press, Nigerian-German Chemicals and Roads Nigeria, on Wednesday, October 4, 2017, for just the same reason.
Thomas Wyatt was incorporated on March 18, 1948, and listed on the NSE October 26, 1978.