No unit dares to audit for businesses
Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) has officially announced that it will delist more than 938 million shares of Tan Tao Investment and Industry Corporation (code ITA) from February 4, 2025 after this stock has been suspended from trading since the end of September 2024.
Previously, on January 17, HOSE sent an official dispatch to Tan Tao Investment and Industry Corporation (Tan Tao) announcing that it would compulsorily delist ITA shares.
The reason for delisting is that Tan Tao seriously violated its information disclosure obligations, which is a case of securities being compulsorily delisted according to regulations.
Up to now, Tan Tao has not made the following information disclosures: Audited Financial Statements (FS) for 2023; Annual Report for 2023; Semi-annual Reviewed Financial Statements for 2024; Decision to open bankruptcy proceedings by the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City.
Tan Tao has also sent documents requesting to temporarily postpone the disclosure of information on the above financial statements due to force majeure.
The State Securities Commission later responded in official dispatches, affirming that Tan Tao had not provided documents and evidence as a basis for citing such force majeure reasons.
Since the time of suspension of trading, Tan Tao's information disclosure violations have not been resolved and are likely to continue and prolong, seriously violating the information disclosure obligation and affecting the rights of shareholders. Therefore, HOSE has decided to carry out compulsory delisting procedures for ITA shares.
Tan Tao has also requested HOSE 9 times to cancel the decisions, removing ITA shares from the list of violations, including warning (from August 2022), control (from October 2024) and suspension of trading (from September 2024).
Tan Tao said it has resolved all the reasons for putting ITA shares on the warning list due to violations of information disclosure regulations.
More than 17 months since the Company met the conditions to be removed from the warning list according to regulations, Tan Tao has sent many official dispatches reporting that all the causes have been resolved, but HOSE still has not had any response and has not resolved to remove ITA shares from the warning list.
Tan Tao also said it is still trying to find and convince auditing companies to conduct the 2023 audited financial statements, the 2024 semi-annual review of financial statements and prepare for the 2024 audited financial statements.
It is known that recently, this enterprise has persuaded 30 auditing companies but was rejected by all.
ITA's leadership also said that they have tried their best to convince auditing companies, but currently no unit dares to audit the enterprise for fear that their auditors will also be suspended from practicing auditing.
Closing the trading session on January 14, ITA stock price was at VND2,350/share, down 63% compared to the beginning of 2024, with an average liquidity of more than 1.8 million shares/session. ITA stock is also in the top 10 stocks with the strongest decrease in value in 2024.
Constantly facing storms
Tan Tao Company was established in 2002, operating mainly in the field of industrial park development and industrial services.
The company also invests and trades in residential real estate. The current Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Tan Tao Company is Ms. Dang Thi Hoang Yen, also known as Maya Dangelas.
Not only is there a scandal about information disclosure violations, recently, Tan Tao has been continuously involved in many scandals that make shareholders worried.
ITA stock has been in a state of constant stagnation, going down as soon as it peaks, which is also believed to be because the company has not had many breakthroughs in business or profit growth.
Along with that are factors such as no dividend payment (from 2014 to present), 10 consecutive years of absence of Chairwoman Dang Thi Hoang Yen at shareholders' meetings, many stagnant projects...
Most recently in mid-2024, Tan Tao was stopped from carrying out customs procedures for export and import goods due to tax arrears.
Then, at the 2024 annual general meeting of shareholders, responding to shareholders about the sharp decline in ITA stock price, Ms. Dang Thi Hoang Yen - Chairman of the company participating online from the US said that since May 2022, ITA has been sabotaged by many forces in order to take over.
ITA shares have continuously fallen sharply in the context of Tan Tao being involved in scandals such as being "accused of bankruptcy" and "mistakes" in accounting for a trillion dong advance payment to Chairwoman Dang Thi Hoang Yen.
Previously, near the end of 2022, a piece of information that stunned shareholders was that in the first self-prepared semi-annual financial report of 2022, Tan Tao recorded an advance payment to Ms. Hoang Yen of more than 1,900 billion VND.
Later, this company reported that it had "miscalculated" so it corrected the receivable from Ms. Yen to VND633 billion. However, when the auditing unit appeared, the receivable from Ms. Yen suddenly disappeared.
Not to mention, according to the management report for the first half of 2022, Tan Tao transacted approximately 320 billion VND with Ms. Yen, including more than 223 billion VND in investment trust.
