Viet Nam’s securities and markets regulator, the State Securities Commission, has refused to give majority state-owned flag carrier Vietnam Airlines (VN, Hanoi Noi Bai International) more time to complete its accounts and related disclosures for 2022 and publish them without delay, a Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange filing released on the afternoon of April 12 reveals.
Late last month, the carrier had asked for a deadline extension citing the complexities of its business model - nine local and 18 offshore affiliates plus another 15 subsidiaries must all prepare their own financial statements - as well as the fallout from Covid-19 and ongoing restructuring efforts.
But these do not justify giving it more time to complete its annual report, the securities watchdog said. Vietnam Airlines’ reasons for postponing its information disclosure do not conform to the “cases of force majeure such as natural disasters, fires, wars, epidemics and other reasons” under which the regulator could allow a delay.
“The State Securities Commission has requested the company to urgently remedy the accounting work to complete the disclosure of information in accordance with the regulations,” the filing concluded.
A public company in Viet Nam must release its audited annual financial statements within ten days of them being signed and no more than 90 days from the end of the fiscal year (December 31). Vietnam Airlines has already missed these deadlines.
Two months ago, the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange again warned Vietnam Airlines of the risk of having its shares delisted if its audited 2022 finances show negative equity. That followed a similar warning last September. A company’s stock is likely to be delisted in Viet Nam if losses are posted for three consecutive years, if an accumulated loss exceeds the contributed charter capital, or if its equity slips into negative territory.
