This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 25, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia has publicly reprimanded Eksons Corp Bhd for committing an error in reporting the profit attributable to owners for its third quarterly financial period ended Dec 31, 2014.

In a statement yesterday, Bursa Malaysia said the reprimand was meted under Paragraph 9.16(1)(a) of the Stock Exchange’s Main Market Listing Requirements (MMLR), which states that a listed issuer must ensure each announcement made is factual, clear, unambiguous, accurate, succinct and contains sufficient information to enable investors to make informed investment decisions.

As a result of the public reprimand, Bursa Malaysia said the timber firm and property developer is also required to review and ensure the adequacy and effectiveness of its financial reporting function and carry out a limited review on its quarterly report submissions.

“The limited review must be performed by the company’s external auditors for four quarterly reports commencing no later from the quarterly report for the financial period ended Sept 30, 2017,” Bursa Malaysia said.

It added that Eksons must ensure that all its directors and relevant personnel attend a training programme in relation to compliance with the MMLR pertaining to financial statements.

On Feb 26, 2015, Eksons reported an unaudited profit attributable to owners of RM64.06 million for the cumulative period ended Dec 31, 2014. Four months later, Eksons — on May 28 — reported an audited net profit of RM52.23 million for the same cumulative period.

The difference between the two announcements, said Bursa Malaysia, was a variance of RM11.84 million or 18.5%.