Trustco Group Holdings has announced it will comply with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) demands to restate its financial statements after the bourse announced Monday a suspension of trading Trustco shares.
The suspension came when the South African High Court dismissed Trustco’s appeal against a finding by the bourse that it wasn’t properly complying with accounting standards.
“Following this judgement, trading of Trustco’s shares were suspended on the JSE. Trustco now has actionable evidence that its financials will need to be restated after Judge Potterill ruled that the FST decision of 22 November 2021 stands.
“Trustco remains listed on the JSE and will abide by the Listings Requirements. Trustco shall, in the interest of all stakeholders, proceed to restate its financial statements, subject to its right to appeal against the decision, and without prejudice to any other legal rights and remedies it might have in law,” the company announced in a SENS announcement issued on Monday.
“It is expected that the suspension of the trading of shares will be lifted once Trustco publishes the audited restatement of its financials as directed.”
The company decision comes after Judge Potterill handed down her decision, dismissing Trustco’s review application with costs.
“In light of the above, the JSE has suspended trading in the shares of Trustco with immediate effect,” the JSE said in a SENS announcement issued on Monday.
The JSE said its decision to suspend the trading of the company shares, was due to Trustco’s failure to comply with, “the JSE’s decision of 11 November 2020, in which the JSE, first, found that Trustco did not comply with the Listings Requirements in relation to its Annual Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2019 and interim results for the 6 months ended 30 September 2019, and, second, directed Trustco to take steps to rectify its non-compliance.”
“The ruling of the Financial Services Tribunal of 22 November 2021, which dismissed Trustco’s application for reconsideration of the JSE’s decision.”
This comes as the company lodged an urgent appeal with the courts, seeking relief against a planned suspension of its listing on the JSE after the Financial Services Tribunal had dismissed its application.
The Namibia-headquartered company, which has operations in insurance and investments, resources, and banking and finance, had approached the Financial Services Tribunal seeking a review of the JSE decision to suspend its listing.
Trustco and the JSE have been at loggerheads after the bourse accused the Namibian company of not complying with its Listings Requirements in relation to its Annual Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2019 and interim results for the 6 months ended 30 September 2019, and thus directed the company to take steps to rectify its non-compliance.
The developments regarding Trustco, however, comes as the company secured minority shareholder approval to delist from the bourse and seek a new listing elsewhere.
Trustco’s delisting will also result in the diversified group delisting from the Namibian Stock Exchange, where it has a secondary listing.
In Namibia, the Bank of Namibia on Wednesday approached the High Court seeking a final order to wind up the operations of Trustco Bank Namibia, which it claims to be commercially insolvent.
