Xinhua Finance and Economics, Beijing, April 28 (Kang Gengfu, Lu Guangyi, Hu Chenxi) Recently, the announcement issued by Tibet Everest has once again aroused the market's attention to the inaccurate disclosure of listed companies due to the appearance of four versions of the name of the secretary of the board of directors. Xinhua Finance and Economics found that during the year, 12 listed companies had errors in their information disclosure, 9 received regulatory letters from the regulatory authorities, nearly 40 securities firms received fines issued by the regulatory authorities, Haitong Securities, CITIC Securities, and Soochow Securities were investigated by the CSRC one after another, and Huaxi Securities was suspended from sponsoring for six months.
The new "National Nine Articles" clearly put forward the need to strictly supervise listed companies, strengthen information disclosure and corporate governance supervision, and put forward the main line of strengthening supervision, preventing risks, and promoting high-quality development, so as to protect the legitimate rights and interests of small and medium-sized investors. A number of industry insiders told Xinhua Finance that strong supervision is an important foundation for building a benign capital market ecology, and it is expected that the sustainable information disclosure system of listed companies will be further improved in the future, the corresponding information disclosure requirements will be clarified and the punishment for illegal information disclosure will be increased, so as to provide an information basis for investors' value judgment with high-quality information disclosure.
Listed companies have repeatedly reported inaccurate disclosures
Recently, Tibet Everest due to the majority shareholder holding shares were frozen and did not fulfill the obligation of information disclosure in a timely manner, the relevant personnel were taken regulatory measures by the Tibet Securities Regulatory Bureau of the Securities Regulatory Commission, Tibet Everest accordingly issued the "Announcement on the receipt of the decision of the Tibet Securities Regulatory Bureau < on Wang Xibing and Hu Handong to take regulatory talk measures> but there was a strange error in this announcement, and the name of Hu Handong, secretary of the board of directors of the company, appeared in four versions, which immediately caused an uproar in the market.
Xinhua Finance combed through relevant information and found that in addition to Tibet's Mount Everest, more than 10 listed companies such as Desay Battery, Thunderda, Supermap Software, Qiming Information, and Juneyao Airlines had incorrect information disclosure during the year, and many of them received regulatory letters from regulators at all levels.
For example, after the market on March 25 this year, Desay Battery released the full text of the 2023 annual report and the summary of the annual report. However, checking the full text of the company's annual report and the summary of the annual report, it was found that the company's net profit attributable to the parent company in 2023 in the full text of the annual report was 562 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 35.13%, but in the summary of the annual report, this data was a year-on-year decrease of 34.07%. Subsequently, the Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau presented a regulatory concern letter to Desay Battery in this situation.
In the company's 2023 annual report, the weighted average return on equity in 2021, the net profit attributable to the parent company in the fourth quarter of 2023, and the total amount of expenses recognized by equity-settled share-based payments during the reporting period were inaccurate. Accordingly, the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau issued a warning letter to the listed company, the chief financial officer and secretary of the board of directors, and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange issued a supervision letter to the listed company, the chief financial officer and the secretary of the board of directors.
SuperMap software has a data error in the profit distribution plan in the financial report. In the 2023 annual report released by the company, the profit distribution plan is based on the company's existing total share capital of 492.7 million shares, and a cash dividend of 1.0 yuan (tax included) will be distributed to all shareholders for every 10 shares, which will calculate the total cash distribution of 49.2767 million yuan. However, in the body of the annual report, "the company's profit distribution and capital reserve to increase share capital", the company needs to distribute cash of 492 million yuan, which is 10 times different from the plan. Due to the inaccurate disclosure of data such as the amount of cash dividends, SuperMap Software and the CFO received a regulatory letter from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
Compared with the inaccurate financial report data released by the above-mentioned companies, the errors in Juneyao Airlines' information disclosure are obviously more serious. After the market on April 8, Juneyao Airlines released the company's 2023 annual report and annual report summary, but there was a checkbox error in the nature of shareholders in the report, and Fang Wei, the company's third largest shareholder and the actual controller of HNA Holdings, was written as an "overseas natural person".
For listed companies frequently make low-level mistakes in information disclosure, Mei Jin, secretary of the board of directors of Wen's shares, told Xinhua Finance that enterprises should have a correct understanding of information disclosure, that is, truthful disclosure and seeking truth from facts, which is the most basic principle. The purpose of a company's listing is not to look good for a while, raise funds or manage market value, etc., but the most fundamental thing is to standardize its operation under supervision.
As for how to reduce the probability of errors, Mei Jinfang believes that for employees who do letter disclosure work, it is necessary to strictly require the control of the error rate, and set up rules and regulations from the arrangement of work and personnel, such as AB angle supervision, proofreading and review, etc., to reduce the possibility of error rate as much as possible. Of course, sometimes it is difficult to completely avoid unintentional mistakes, but it is still necessary to do a good job as much as possible in terms of work rules and regulations, and control the source.
"If there is a particularly strange mistake in the letter, I think that in addition to the irresponsibility of the staff, there may be some problems with the company itself. In fact, the regulatory requirements for information disclosure have always been relatively clear and strict, mainly on how enterprises do it. The strong supervision emphasized in the new 'National Nine Articles' has tightened the strings on listed companies, and it is believed that it will bring about an improvement in the quality of the entire information disclosure. Mei Jinfang said.
Strong regulatory signals continue to be released
On April 12 this year, the State Council issued the "Several Opinions on Strengthening Supervision and Risk Prevention and Promoting the High-quality Development of the Capital Market" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), which is the third "National Nine Articles" in the capital market and the capital market guidance document issued by the State Council again after the two "National Nine Articles" in 2004 and 2014. The "Opinions" set the development goals to be achieved by the capital market in the next five years, by 2035, and by the middle of this century, and is a programmatic document for the long-term construction of the capital market.
The "Opinions" clearly put forward the need to strictly supervise the continuous supervision of listed companies, strengthen the supervision of information disclosure and corporate governance, and put forward the main line of strengthening supervision, preventing risks and promoting high-quality development, so as to ensure that supervision is "long and thorny", angular and angular, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of small and medium-sized investors.
Regarding the repeated inaccuracies and even strange errors in the information disclosure of listed companies, Yang Delong, chief economist of Qianhai Open Source Fund, told Xinhua Finance that there are some low-level errors in information disclosure of listed companies, which really should not be. Only timely, accurate and complete information disclosure can allow investors to better understand listed companies, so the above problems will be strictly corrected and punished by supervision. It is believed that after the implementation of the new "National Nine Articles", the requirements for the disclosure of information by listed companies will be more stringent, and the number of false disclosures will be greatly reduced.
"In the context of the comprehensive registration system, the accuracy, completeness, authenticity and timeliness of information disclosure is the key, the smooth progress of the registration system is inseparable from the support of the strict disclosure system, the low-level error phenomenon of the information disclosure of listed companies, we need to pay attention to it, on the one hand, we need to improve the awareness of the rigor of the information disclosure of listed companies, on the other hand, we need to improve the quality of information disclosure, improve the timeliness, accuracy and authenticity of information disclosure, and strict information disclosure is the core of the promotion of the registration system. Financial commentator Guo Shiliang said.
In addition to strengthening information disclosure and corporate governance supervision, the "Opinions" also mentioned in the strict supervision of listed companies that a comprehensive punishment and prevention system for anti-counterfeiting and anti-counterfeiting in the capital market should be built, and violations of laws and regulations in key areas such as financial fraud and capital occupation should be strictly rectified. Supervise and urge listed companies to improve their internal control systems. Give full play to the supervisory role of independent directors, and strengthen the performance of duties to safeguard and restrain them.
According to incomplete statistics from Xinhua Finance, since the beginning of this year, in addition to a number of listed companies receiving regulatory letters from regulators at all levels, nearly 40 securities firms have received fines issued by regulatory authorities. Haitong Securities, CITIC Securities, and Soochow Securities were investigated by the China Securities Regulatory Commission one after another, Huaxi Securities was suspended from sponsoring for 6 months, Huatai Securities and others were ordered to make corrections, and China Galaxy Securities and others were issued warning letters.
Among them, CITIC Securities and Haitong Securities were punished in only one week from the filing of the case. Judging from the total amount of fines and confiscations, the China Securities Regulatory Commission intends to fine and confiscate a total of 235 million yuan on Wang Zelong, Hong Haowei, the actual controllers of China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide, CITIC China Securities Capital, CITIC Securities, Haitong Securities, and Han Yuchen, of which the total fine is 157 million yuan and the total amount confiscated is 77.532 million yuan.
"Strong regulation is an important foundation for building a benign capital market ecology. It is expected that the sustainable information disclosure system of listed companies will be further improved in the future, and the corresponding information disclosure requirements will be clarified for fundraising and investment projects, financial fraud and routine information disclosure, and the penalties for illegal information disclosure will be increased, so as to provide an information basis for investors' value judgment with high-quality information disclosure. Gong Fang, director of the Policy Research Office of Shenwan Hongyuan, told Xinhua Finance.
Editor: Hu Chenxi
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