Raysut Cement, the biggest cement manufacturer in the Sultanate of Oman, has posted a post-tax loss of RO 93.686 million for the financial year ended December 31, 2022 – in the first such filing by the company since the Capital Market Authority (CMA) dramatically intervened last month in response to significant reporting discrepancies in its financial accounts.
This compares with a loss of RO 12.924 million incurred by the parent company in 2021, Khalid Ramees al Rawas, Raysut Cement CEO, stated in initial unaudited financial results disclosed to the regulator on Tuesday.
Total revenue was down 12.17 per cent to RO 45.363 million in 2022, from RO 51.647 million a year earlier. Total expenditure climbed nearly 33 per cent to RO 87.300 million, up from RO 65.655 million in 2021.
Raysut Cement Group, on the other hand, posted a post-tax loss of RO 90.924 million for fiscal 2022, up from a net loss of RO 13.585 million in 2021. Group revenue declined 26.12 per cent to RO 69.147 million in 2022, down from RO 93.597 million in 2021.
Publicly-traded Raysut Cement is currently administered by an interim Board of Directors instituted by the market regulator following the discovery of “material representations” in the company’s financial reporting for the second quarter of last year.
Trading in the company’s shares was initially suspended by the Authority on November 22. But when the then Board’s remedial responses failed to fully address the concerns of the regulator, the latter swiftly stepped in to take corrective action in the public interest. It dissolved the existing Board and appointed a five-member temporary board of directors with powers to remedy Raysut Cement’s precarious financial situation. Part of the new board’s remit was to “organize and restructure” the firm with the goal of restoring its financial stability and also addressing the underlying reasons that contributed to the suspected irregularities.
Justifying its intervention, the CMA said it was necessitated by a desire to restore investor confidence in a leading publicly listed company, as well as in the capital market as a whole. The intervention was only the second time in the Authority’s history when it acted to supersede the board of a listed company – the first time being in September 2019 when it dissolved the board of Al Hassan Engineering Co SAOG citing the public interest.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
