Trading in Saudi Arabia’s Mobily suspended -regulator

Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority on Sunday suspended trading in Mobily’s shares pending the mobile firm’s response to the preliminary findings of a regulator panel investigating its restatement of over two years of earnings.

Mobily, part-owned by Abu Dhabi-listed Etisalat, restated 27 months of earnings to March 31, 2015, slashing its total profits over the period by nearly SAR 1.76bn ($470m).

Trading in Mobily’s shares was halted on Sunday, the market regulator said in a bourse statement. This is pending a response from the company to preliminary decisions of Committees for the Resolution of Securities Disputes regarding claims from investors following a steep drop in its share price as a result of its revised earnings.

Mobily first revealed there were errors in its financial statements on Nov. 3, 2014, since when its shares have fallen 63 per cent.

The company had attributed its woes to the premature booking of revenue from wholesale broadband leases and mobile promotional campaigns and also made further changes to the way it accounts for some contracts and the depreciation of property and equipment.