Gulf Finance House Issues Small "Clarification" on Its Earnings Announcement - "Going Concern" Emphasis of Matter from Auditors

Gulf Finance House noticed that it had omitted one trivial detail from its 15 February press release on its financials and in the spirit of disclosure announced on both the Kuwaiti and Bahrain stock exchanges today that without qualifying their audit opinion, GFH's auditors had called attention to the fact that a lack of liquidity and insufficient capital might raise issues with GFH's ability to continue as a going concern.  As of yet, this press release is not posted at the website of the Dubai Financial Market, where GFH is also listed.

The Kuwaiti press release is below and it is apparently a verbatim quote of the auditors' "emphasis of matter".  The Bahraini press release is a description of the auditors' statement and points out that the auditors have not cast any doubt on the accuracy of the financials and have described GFH's plan to deal with both issues.

You'll recall that GFH's Chairman committed himself to greater transparency on 17 February.   And that is clearly not only a regulatory requirement but as well a moral imperative, especially if one is upholding the good name of Islamic financial institutions.  From where I sit the next step perhaps should be a commitment to timeliness.  And then perhaps one for comprehensiveness to make sure that the announcement gets to all Stock Exchanges where GFH is listed.

And, yes, if you're wondering, GFH still has not updated its website with its current rating.  In fact it hasn't yet updated its website for the downgrade last 26 November 2009.  You may recall that was the first of several that resulted in it being downgraded to "SD". 

[8:31:30]  ِ.بيت التمويل الخليجي ‏
يعلن سوق الكويت للاوراق المالية عطفا على اعلانه السابق بتاريخ 15-02-2010 ‏
والخاص بالبيانات المالية السنوية لبيت التمويل الخليجي ،افاد البنك بان ‏
تقرير مراقبي الحسابات يحتوي على الفقرة التوضيحية الاتية :‏
دون التحفظ فى راينا،نلفت الانتباه الى الايضاح رقم2(ب)فى البيانات المالية ‏
المجمعة الذي يناقش عدم تاكد جوهري يتعلق بحاجة المجموعة للسيولة وكفاية ‏
الراسمال القانوني والذي قد يشير الى شك حول صلاحية مبدا الاستمرارية ‏
المستعمل فى اعداد البيانات المالية المجمعة .ان خطة الادارة للتعامل مع هذا
الموضوع مبين فى الايضاحات رقم 40(ب) و 41 فى البيانات المالية المجمعة .‏