DITO, AbaCore, and others say they’ll submit earnings reports before suspension deadline
As reported by Miguel Camus yesterday, DITO CME [DITO 4.55 5.21%] and AbaCore [ABA 1.29] [link] both came out with statements yesterday to reduce fears of suspension should either company fail to submit its required reporting by the May 31st deadline.
Speaking on behalf of DITO, Ernesto Alberto said, “Our finance team is on it.” Pretty casual, but also to the point.
The ball is very clearly in the finance team’s court.
ABA was more detailed, explaining that the delay was partly the fault of its auditor, and partly due to the “inevitable and necessary reorganization of management and the board due to circumstances beyond our control.” (I hope the auditors had a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones before that bus ran them over.)
Alfredo Yao, owner of Philippine Business Bank [PBB 7.20], said that the delay was caused by a “new system”, and committed to filing before the deadline.
Willy Ocier, director of Leisure & Resorts World [LR 1.32 3.65%], was not as convincing, but said that he “believed” that LR would be able to submit before the deadline.
MB BOTTOM-LINE
Thanks to Miguel Camus for collecting all of these responses in his Twitter thread. I think the world is officially done with “because COVID” as an excuse for why some accounting work is not completed on-time, so it’s interesting to see the array of responses that executives need to generate now in order to pass the smell test with investors.
It’s always easy to blame the auditors, but in my experience, auditors have an amazing work rate and are rarely (if ever) the problem; usually, it’s the company supplying the auditors with information (or the lack thereof) that is really the cause of the delay.
The “new system” reason is also a tale as old as time, and as a person who has overseen migrations between different systems (even SAP), I can say that while delays are almost always a part of the process, their impact on reporting can usually be mitigated with proper engagement planning.
What really caught my eye this time around was the delay caused by ABA’s “inevitable” reorganization. Seeing a reorganization characterized as “inevitable” is a new one to me, and considering the definition of inevitable to be something that is “certain to happen and unavoidable”, it’s even more interesting to see that used as an excuse for a delay.
At the end of the day, though, I just get a kick out of reading statements by high-profile executives that come across like school kids trying to explain why their homework is late.
I hope they all complete their work on time and avoid detention!
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Merkado Barkada's opinions are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any particular stock. These daily articles are not updated with new information, so each investor must do his or her own due diligence before trading, as the facts and figures in each particular article may have changed.
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