Several Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) listed companies have requested further extension for them to file audited financial reports after missing the 30-day reprieve granted by the bourse.
The reprieve was necessitated by a consideration that the country had been under Level 4 lockdown since the beginning of the year.
Ordinarily, listed firms are required to publish their financial results within three months after the end of each financial period.
In March, the ZSE said issuers whose half-year and full-year financial period ended on 31 December 2020 and are due for publication by 31 March 2021 would be granted a 30-day compliance grace period to 30 April 2021.
Now, a substantial number of companies still failed to meet the deadline and have requested another extension.
This week, four companies sought and were granted varying new reporting deadlines.
Engineering firm, Zeco Holdings Limited reported, “Please be advised that we failed to publish the ZECO Holdings Limited 2020 Audited Financial Results by the extended deadline of 30 April 2021 due to the current COVID 19 pandemic circumstances. We sought a further extension from the ZSE which was granted on condition that we publish by 18 May 2021. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
Plastic pipes and fittings manufacturer, Proplastics Limited will now release their results on or before 14 May 2021.
“This has been necessitated by the need to ensure conclusion of the year end audit process which fell behind schedule mainly due to the impact of the COVID-19 related lockdown at the beginning of the year,” said the company.
Cement maker, Lafarge also sought an extension and will release results by the 14 of May while clothing retail giant, Edgars Stores Limited will release its results on or before May 31.
“The delay was due to a late start of the audit process due Covid-19 lockdown. There were increases in the complexity of reporting issues in the current economic and the regulatory environment which required extended involvement of experts both in the preparation of financial statements and the audit there-of,” said Edgars.
