Auditor files irregularity
IRBA: SHAREMAX RESCUE VEHICLE FLOUTS COMPANIES ACT – AGAIN
Nova did not apprise investors of the RI.
of the delayed publication of the financial statements. No reasons were offered.
The statement reads: “The Audited Annual Financial Statements of Nova PropGrow Group Holdings Limited and its Subsidiaries for the year ending February 28 2019, will be made available during February 2020 when the Audited Annual Financial Statements have to be filed with the company’s annual return as required by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (“CIPC”).”
During Nova’s most recently completed financial year, several notable events transpired. It is not currently known whether any of these events have a bearing on the RI and the delay in the publication of the statements.
One of the major developments was that Standard Bank closed Nova’s bank accounts. According to minutes of a Nova board meeting, the bank closed the accounts because it was “no longer interested in doing business” with Nova.
Another development was that former financial director Liezl Gildenhuys instituted an unfair dismissal claim against the Nova board in October last year. She alleged in her submission to the Labour Court that she was fired after she reported several apparent financial irregularities and fraud to the Nova board, Nova’s auditors and Irba.
She alleged that Nova overvalued its properties and could not meet its operational costs and that the board sold properties to fund operational expenditure.
Nova denied Gildenhuys’ allegations.
Nova has had a few issues with its financial statements over the past few years. The previous set of financial statements (2017/18) was also published three months late.
Nexia SAB&T issued qualified statements and not only questioned the assumptions on which Nova’s property valuations were done, but also raised concerns about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.