PSE fines electronics holding firm for disclosure violations

CIRTEK Holdings Philippines Corp. has been fined by the Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. (PSE) for violations of its disclosure rules and doing transactions during black-out period.

In a publication of penalties uploaded on its website on Wednesday, the PSE said it has imposed sanctions on the electronics manufacturer for failure to comply with its disclosure requirements for publicly listed firms.

The violation, it said, are as follows: (i) Inaccurate disclosure of the transaction involving Cirtek shares by its subsidiary; (ii) delayed and non-disclosure of the transactions of Cirtek shares by its subsidiary; (iii) non-disclosure of the changes in the indirect ownership of directors/principal officers; and (iv) transactions of directors/principal officers during the black-out period.

According to Article VIII Section 2 of the PSE’s Consolidated Listing and Disclosure Rules, failure to comply with its unstructured disclosure requirements, or disclosures about corporate developments, would warrant a company a fine of P50,000 for the first violation, P75,000 for the second violation of a similar nature, suspension of trading for one month for the third violation and delisting for the fourth violation.

An additional fine of P1,000 per day is also imposed on violators for each trading day the offense continues.

BusinessWorld asked the PSE and Cirtek for the specific amount of the fine imposed on the latter, but neither were able to provide the figure as of deadline time.

After the PSE’s disclosure, shares in Cirtek at the stock exchange lost 47 centavos or 6.65% to close at P6.60 each on Wednesday.

In the first nine months of 2019, Cirtek recorded an attributable net income of $5.53 million, surging from $1.95 million in the same period in 2018. The growth came amid a 27% rise in its gross revenues to $88.48 million.