When Saudi Cable Co said last month it was delaying the release of its 2014 earnings statement, because it was still compiling information required by an external auditor, it was a sign of growing regulatory pressure on companies in the kingdom.
Regulators are signalling they want corporate managements to tighten governance and strengthen internal controls as the $500 billion Saudi stock market prepares to open up to direct foreign investment in the next few months.
The process has become more urgent since an accounting scandal erupted at telecommunications firm Mobily, which in February revised its 2014 earnings to a loss of $243 million from the $58.6 million profit previously claimed.
The Mobily affair, and the probe into it launched by the Capital Market Authority (CMA), have prompted many company managements, board members and even major shareholders to become more conscious of risk, executives and analysts say.
"What happened has set the alarm bills ringing and pushed board members to revise their roles, made investors carefully check financial statements, and caused company managements to review their accounts carefully," said Turki Fadaak, head of research and advisory services at AlBilad Capital in Riyadh.
"It has made us, the analysts, keen on meeting with company managements more often, and caused us to look more carefully at everything being said and everything that managements announce."
One sign of the new mood is that the fees charged by some auditors are rising as demand for their services grows.
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