BY M. HAFIDZ MAHPAR

A worker at Kinsteel's factory is loading steel billets into a reheating furnace.

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd has rejected Kinsteel Bhd’s request to delay the issuance of its 2017 annual report, due by end of this month, to Nov 30.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the Practice Note 17-status company said if it failed to submit the report within five market days after the expiry of the deadline (by Nov 7), Bursa Securities would suspend the trading of the company’s ordinary shares on the next market day (9.00am on Nov 8).

This is in addition to any enforcement action that the regulatory body may take.

Kinsteel said there was a delay in the audit process as the company must settle the outstanding audit fees to the auditors before they began audit on the group’s financial statements for the financial year ended June 30, 2017 (FY17).

In August, the steel product maker reported an unaudited loss attributable to shareholders of RM318.75mil for FY17 against a loss of RM70.36mil in the preceding year. Its unaudited revenue fell 23% to RM229.45mil.

Kinsteel triggered the PN17 criteria in October last year after its external auditors, Crowe Horwath, expressed a disclaimer opinion in the report for its audited financial statements for the financial year ended June 30, 2016.