The 100 distressed companies buckling under PN4 (Practice Note 4) condition face de-listing from the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) if they are unable to fulfill their financial requirements by year end.

Finance Ministry parliamentary secretary Hisham Ismail said this when responding to a supplementary question from Member of Parliament Chow Kon Yeow (DAP-Tanjong) during the oral questions session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Chow had asked the minister what actions would be taken on these companies if they do not fulfill the listing requirements as stated by the Securities Commission (SC) as the deadline for them to do so is over.

Hisham said the companies have been given a year's extension to December to comply with the requirements. He said the SC would continue to monitor the progress of these companies.

He said that, of the100 companies, 32 were under trading restrictions, seven were not while 61 have been suspended. The list is available on the KLSE website.

However, the website states that one company will be uplifted from PN4 Condition with effect from today.

Not manipulated accounts

Earlier, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (Keadilan-Permatang Pauh) had asked Hisham if the government would justify the particulars of accounts for the public listed companies which claimed their financial records are free of manipulation.

She also wanted to know how many companies listed have not fulfilled the projections of income and profits as announced before the listing was done and to name the companies involved.

Hisham replied by quoting the regulations that are already in place to ensure that companies comply with the requirements.

He said that, of 20 companies listed last year, 13 achieved their profit forecast, four did not while three have yet to submit their financial reports.

He said the SC required companies which failed to achieve their profit forecast to provide an explanation and details of their problem.