Published On:Thursday, September 02, 2010

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

THE Securities Commission's outgoing executive director has expressed concern that public companies are still "failing to understand" their reporting and disclosure requirements, confirming that City Markets' parent company had not advised shareholders of the extension it received to publish unaudited management accounts for its fiscal 2010 fourth quarter and year-end.

Speaking to Tribune Business before he left office earlier this week, Hillary Deveaux said: "We still have a problem with public companies understanding what their reporting requirements are, and that full disclosure means advising the public of any material change."

He was speaking in the wake of informing Tribune Business that Bahamas Supermarkets, the 11-store supermarket chain, should have published a notice informing shareholders and the investing public that it had been granted an extension to publish its unaudited management accounts for the 2010 fourth quarter - something it has thus far failed to do.

"They advised the Commission that they would not be in a position to file their fourth quarter statements with us, and we had granted an extension for the filing of the fourth quarter results," Mr Deveaux told Tribune Business, adding that he believed an extension was granted until end-August.

He added that it was then up to the public company, in this case Bahamas Supermarkets, to disclose this development to its shareholders and the wider capital markets, and ensure they were not expecting the fourth quarter accounts to be published at July month's end.

Bahamas Supermarkets had agreed to publish its quarterly management accounts within 30 days of period end as part of an agreement to settle a complaint brought against it by the Securities Commission over the late filing of its audited financial statements for the fiscal years 2008 and 2009.

Given that its fourth quarter and year-end was late June 2010, those accounts should have been published in late July, but although Bahamas Supermarkets was granted the extension, no notice signifying this yet been published. The Securities Commission had previously alleged that Bahamas Supermarkets breached Section 65 of the Securities Industry Act by failing to file its certified annual results in a timely manner, with the audited statements for fiscal 2008 only submitted on October 27, 2009, some 16 months after the year-end.

Allegations

While not "admitting or denying" the allegations, as part of the settlement agreement Bahamas Supermarkets agreed to pay a $15,000 fine over the complaint, with a further $10,000 payable as a result of failing to produce its 2009 audited financial statements.

Bahamas Supermarkets also agreed to publish the 2009 audited financial statements "on or before May 31, 2010", and submit to the Securities Commission and publish its quarterly management accounts on its website within 30 days of period end. The Securities Commission's said at the time: "This matter had presented the Commission with various challenges in exercising its disciplinary authority. However, many valuable lessons have been learnt in this exercise, which can only enhance the Commission's execution of its disciplinary responsibilities in the future."

Mr Deveaux also told Tribune Business within the past week that Bahamas Supermarkets' audited financial statements for its 2009 fiscal year had been filed with the Securities Commission, and the company had been directed to post these - audited by Deloitte & Touche (Bahamas) - on its website.