The Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) has recently decided to transfer the shares of Tan Tao Investment and Industry Joint Stock Company (code: ITA-HOSE) from restricted trading to trading suspension.
Accordingly, the trading of these shares has been suspended since September 26, 2024, due to the listed company’s continued violation of information disclosure regulations in the securities market after being placed under restricted trading. This falls under the case of securities being suspended from trading according to Clause c, Point 1, Article 41 of the Listing and Trading Regulations of Listed Securities issued together with Decision No. 17/QD-HDTV dated March 31, 2022, of the Members’ Council of the Vietnam Stock Exchange.
ITA shares are also currently under warning according to Decision No. 586/QD-SGDHCM dated August 26, 2022, of the General Director of HOSE due to the company’s violation of information disclosure regulations four times or more within one year (calculated according to the calendar year).
Recently, in a document requesting a temporary suspension of information disclosure in late August, ITA attributed the situation to reasons of force majeure that had lasted for several months.
The company stated that it had made “great efforts” to contact and persuade 30 licensed audit firms in the market, but was rejected. According to ITA, this was because since 2022, the State Securities Commission (SSC) has suspended the qualifications of four auditors who conducted the audit of Tan Tao’s financial statements for the years 2021, 2022, and the first half of 2023. This has caused all audit firms to fear conducting audits for Tan Tao and worry about facing similar disqualification.
Meanwhile, ITA is still trying to persuade audit firms to perform the 2023 Financial Statements and the 2024 Semi-annual Reviewed Financial Statements. However, whether they find an auditing unit or not depends on “actions demonstrating the task of protecting the interests of shareholders and investors by the SSC and HoSE.”
At the same time, ITA also requested HoSE to cancel the decision to put ITA shares under restricted trading from July 16, 2024.
Notably, in the Q&A session at the 2024 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong, CEO, stated that although the 2023 audited financial statements were not yet available, the ITA management board committed to transparency and truthfulness of financial information.
The profit in 2023 was positive and reflected the actual business situation of ITA over the years. The loss in 2021 was due to the audit firm’s provision for doubtful accounts receivable, and in 2022, ITA terminated the land lease contract for the Kien Luong Thermal Power Project due to force majeure. This was not a regular activity, and except for these reasons, ITA made a profit in 2021, 2022, and 2023, with a high profit margin compared to other companies in the same industry.
Closing the trading session on September 16, the share price fell to VND 3,240 per share with 582,200 units traded. The share price has since decreased further to VND 2,770 per share.
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