SEO to Pressurize Non-Transparent Firms

EghtesadOnline: The Securities and Exchange Organization is considering harsher measures against listed companies that refuse to release their financial information and follow transparency measures, the deputy head of SEO said.

News ID: ۷۸۱۰۹۰

14 January 2018

“Possible disciplinary provisions include measures such as disqualification of the violating company’s board of directors, barring major shareholders from making board decisions and preventing the company from increasing its capital,” Hassan Amiri was also quoted as saying by Bourse Press. The measures await the approval of SEO’s board of directors. SEO’s disciplinary actions so far have been limited to freezing violating companies’ share on the stock market. This, more often than not, has ended up hurting shareholders as firms remain nonchalant, as locking investors’ capital in companies’ coffers is more of a boon to the latter. Currently, 33 listed companies’ shares are frozen on Tehran Stock Exchange as well as 48 others on the smaller over-the-counter Iran Fara Bourse. Some of the shares have been closed for about two years now, with banks such as Saderat, Post Bank and Shahr being the largest of the bunch, Financial Tribune reported.