Brierley given leeway

Press, 20 February 1988, Page 27

Brierley given leeway

PA Wellington The Stock Exchange has given Brierley Investments, Ltd, a dispensation from the requirement for all listed companies to produce a postcrash balance sheet by February 29. BIL will announce its profit for the six months ended December 31 on March 14, the company’s chief executive, Mr Paul Collins, said yesterday. He said the exchange had accepted that it was not possible for BIL to meet the deadline for compiling a pro forma balance sheet, but this would be presented on March 14. The exchange’s legal officer, Mr Graeme Ramsay, said BlL’s dispensation was the only one so far, but it would consider requests from other multinationals for dispensations. He was not aware of any at present. Forty nine of the 290 public companies listed in New Zealand have responded to the exchange’s requirements. Thirty one have reported that they own no shares in publicly listed companies and have not suffered paper losses. The other 18 have produced balance sheets showing losses ranging from $17,000 to $223 million. Mr Ramsay would not comment on how the exchange would deal with companies which failed to comply with the requirement. Some of the big losers disclosed their sharemarket losses before the exchange made reporting mandatory.

Robert Jones Investments was one of the first to come clean, telling the exchange last November that it owned no shares in listed companies.