FSA imposes penalty on Shumookh Industrial Development Fund for financial reporting violation

The Financial Services Authority has issued Administrative Decision No. 1/2024 imposing a financial penalty on Shumookh Industrial Development Fund for failing to file financial statements for the second and third quarters of 2023 in violation of Article 279 of the Executive Regulation of the Capital Market Law no. 1/2009.

Article 279 provides; “Every issuer shall prepare unaudited interim financial statements for first, second and third quarters of the financial year and disclose the same immediately after approval by the board of directors and within not more than 30 days from the end of the quarter. However, the issuers who have subsidiaries and are required to prepare consolidated financial statements would be allowed 45 days for the same.

Financial statements mean the balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, a statement on change in shareholder’s equity and the notes to the financial statements.

Such disclosures shall be accompanied by a report containing the material events that affected the issuer’s performance and its financial position during the financial period of the report and reasons for material changes in figures compared to the same financial period of the previous year.”

It is worth noting that FSA is required to ensure providing periodic and material information of the issuers of securities on a timely basis taking into account the integrity and accuracy of information for all consumers in the stock exchange and such disclosure shall be via the website of the stock exchange as central outlet for dissemination of issuers’ news to ensure fairness among all consumers to increase the level of investor confidence so as the Omani capital market will be attractive to foreign and local capital.