Many firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) have failed to abide by the bourse's regulation which request all companies publish their annual results in the first 45 days of the new year, brokers and bankers said on Thursday, February 22. Official figures showed that over 75 percent of the 212 shareholding firms listed on the ASE did not submit their annual results to the bourse.
Only three banks have abided by the regulations — the Arab Bank, the Jordan Kuwait Bank and the Philadelphia Bank for Investments. The figures also showed that 23 companies in the insurance, service and industrial sectors have complied with the regulation.
“This is a clear sign that the majority are not committed to the principle of transparency which was enacted and introduced last year,” one broker said. “The regulation stipulates that the shares of a firm that fails to abide by this condition be frozen from trading on the floor,” the broker, who asked not to be named, added.
“I do not think the bourse will undertake any concrete steps in that direction and this condition will be repeated every now and then,” another broker said. The broker indicated that the delay in publishing the results will affect the credibility of the firms and harm their image with investors.
Among the firms that failed to supply the bourse with its annual results are major blue-chips such as the Housing Bank for Trade and Finance, the Jordan Phosphate Mines Company, the Jordan Cement Factories Company and the Arab Potash Company.
“The delay has one meaning: That these firms do have bad results which they do now want to make public,” another broker said.
But one banker said that delay of commercial banks' results was due to the Central Bank of Jordan's procedures “which take a long time to scrutinize the results of these financial institutions.” “But that does not mean there results are OK. They do their best to put their results in away that looks less ugly,” the broker added.
“Most of the banks and firms had enough time to do their homework, but very few complied with the regulation. This is a very serious challenge to the ASE's regulation,” one broker said. — ( Jordan Times )
By Tareq Ayyoub
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
