Goddy Egene
C & I Leasing Plc yesterday assured stakeholders of meeting its 2020 profit target despite a likely financial error in the audited accounts of its Ghana subsidiary, Leasafric Ghana Limited (Leasafric).
C & I Leasing owns 71 per cent equity stake in Leasafric and the subsidiary contributes about 10 per cent to the group’s financial performance.
In a notification to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) the board of directors of Leasafric Ghana would meet today to review the matter and would notify all regulators including the Bank of Ghana and carry out a special investigation into the circumstances surrounding the likely errors in the Audited Accounts
Leasafric is a non-bank financial institution incorporated in Ghana in 1992, to carry on the business of finance leasing as its principal business. C&I Leasing Plc.
According to the company, while the exact amount in question will be ascertained by the ongoing investigations, “we estimate that the write-off of the amount may not have any material impact on the group’s net earnings for 2019. Nevertheless, we assure all the stakeholders and the investing public that C&I Leasing Plc is resilient and well diversified to cushion any likely impact of the financial error.”
C & I Leasing said it had begun putting adequate measures in place and strengthening its existing risk controls framework to prevent a recurrence.
“It is noteworthy to mention that our detection of this financial error is as a result of the effective implementation of the company’s robust corporate governance framework which is closely monitored by the board and we remain committed to ensuring the continued full and effective implementation of the framework . In spite of the likely impact on our profit target for 2019, we are optimistic that with our exceptional track record in major sectors of the economy, we expect to meet our profit targets for 2020, and beyond. We therefore do not envisage that this event will have any material negative impact on C & I Leasing Plc’s on-going rights issue,” the firm said.
Meanwhile, trading at the stock market opened for the week on a bearish note as the NSE All-Share Index fell by 0.65 per cent to close at
26,681.31. Similarly, market capitalisation shed N84.1 billion to close at 12.9 trillion. Activity level was mixed as volume traded declined 2.2 per cent to 192.7 million shares while value traded appreciated 0.5 per cent to N3.5 billion.
