STANBIC IBTC, Standard Bank’s majority-owned Nigerian subsidiary, has yet to release 2015 full-year or first-quarter results, two weeks before its parent reports the group’s performance for the same period.
Standard Bank is expected to report its performance for the first half of the year on August 18.
Investors eager to learn if impairment charges at Stanbic had adversely affected performance at both of Standard Bank’s core banking units (although not quantified in the banking group’s 2015 interim results) will not be able to gauge the extent of any improvements in this metric. Stanbic said previously that credit impairment charges had increased 449% to 7.9-billion naira ($24.9m) in the six months to June 2015.
"The results of Stanbic IBTC will continue to be included in the consolidated results of the Standard Bank group but will not be individually identifiable or disclosed separately," said Stanbic spokesman Nkiru Olumide-Ojo.
Stanbic, 53.2% held by Standard Bank, is engaged in a Mexican standoff with the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, which hit it with a number of sanctions in 2015 over various "irregularities" in its 2013 and 2014 financial statements.
Stanbic approached the courts earlier in 2016 for an order compelling the regulator to stop interfering in its business, but has since told shareholders that the council maintained that, as it was appealing against the court order, its sanctions — including barring CEO Sola David-Borha and chairman Atedo Peterside from signing off financial statements — were still in force.
The council last released a statement on Stanbic in November. The Central Bank of Nigeria, which previously wrote a letter supporting Stanbic, has remained quiet on the matter thus far in 2016.
In October 2015, Stanbic resorted to its company secretary and the head of finance at its corporate and investment bank to sign off third-quarter financial statements, as it took action against the council.
This time it was not able to use less senior company executives to sign off its financial statements, and the Stock Exchange of Nigeria sanctioned it for failing to file timeously, although it had been granted an extension.
"As part of Nigeria’s financial reporting requirements, publicly listed companies are first required to report full-year audited financials and thereafter quarterly," said Olumide-Ojo. "Given that our 2015 financials are yet to be published, we are unable … to publish the quarterly (results)."
The bank has finalised its financial statements but indicated it was being held ransom by the council, which had told Stanbic auditors KPMG they would be penalised for issuing an opinion on the bank’s financial statements.
It could not turn to auditing firms outside the council’s jurisdiction.
"Only Nigeria-registered and licensed audit firms are allowed to audit a Nigerian listed entity," said Olumide-Ojo. "We are taking every step to have the matter resolved soonest. Stanbic IBTC group is liquid and continues to trade profitably."
