LAFARGE Africa Plc Board of Directors has admitted that unresolved major issues are the cause of the delay in the company’s submission of its audited financial statements and accounts for the 2018 business year and the first quarter of 2019.

In a regulatory filing, the Mobolaji Balogun-led board, which had earlier sought extension at the expiration of March 31, 2019 deadline, stated that it was still unable to meet the extended deadline.

According to the board, there was further delay due to “pending actions required for the resolution of key matters relating to the closure of the company’s annual audited financial statement for the year ended December 31, 2018”.

External auditors usually refer key matters to “those matters that, in professional judgment, are of most significance in the financial statements and audit of a company”. These matters usually play important roles in the conclusive opinion of the external auditors on the accounts.

The company said it had sought and received Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) approval for the further delay, expressing optimism that “all the issues will be fully resolved and the audited financial statements will be submitted not later than June 28, 2019”.

Lafarge Africa had suffered a net loss of N10.37 billion by the third quarter of the 2018 business year. Key extracts of the interim report and accounts of Lafarge Africa for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2018 had shown that sales rose from N223.67 billion in third quarter 2017 to N234.30 billion in third quarter 2018. With cost of sales rising from N165.76 billion to N178.21 billion, the cement company, however, ended with a pre-tax loss of N14.36 billion in 2018 as against pre-tax profit of N1.09 billion in comparable period of 2017.

After tax gain of N4.04 billion, net loss after tax stood at N10.37 billion in third quarter 2018 compared with net profit after tax of N937.91 million in comparable period of 2017. With these, loss per share for the nine-month period stood at N1.20 in 2018 as against positive earnings per share of 10kobo in corresponding period of 2017.

Post-listing rules at the NSE require quoted companies to submit their earnings reports, not later than 90 calendar days after the expiration of the period. Companies are also required to submit their interim quarterly results not later than 30 days after the end of the relevant period.

Most quoted companies, including all banks, major manufacturers, oil and gas companies, breweries and cement companies use the 12-month Gregorian calendar year as their business year. The business year thus terminates on December 31.

NSE’s regulatory filing calendar indicated that the deadline for submission of annual report for companies with Gregorian calendar business year ended December 31, 2018 was March 31, 2019. However, March 29, 2019 was the last working day for the period, thus effectively the deadline for submission of the reports in line with the traditional practice at the Exchange. The deadline for the submission of first quarter 2019 results was April 30, 2019.