HOLD YOUR HORSES- Dairy giant Juhayna is not facing imminent delisting despite being set to move tomorrow to the “D-list” of naughty companies thanks to a delay in the disclosure of its FY2020 financials. The EGX said this morning it would move JUFO and a handful of other companies to the D-list if it did not submit audited financials by today — the bourse’s final deadline for companies to report their FY2020 results. The EGX had issued a warning to companies who had not yet submitted last year’s financials on 25 May that they would be placed on the list if they did not submit them by 1 June.

Orascom Investment Holding and El Wadi Touristic Investment both made the deadline by filing financials today.

What does it mean to go on the D-list? Investors will no longer be allowed to buy Juhayna shares on margin, and they won’t be on the list of stocks in which same-day trading is permitted. The shares would also face a 5% up-or-down limit instead of the 10% band in which they’re presently allowed to trade. “A company would generally sit on the D-list for a very, very long time before the EGX would start delisting procedures against them,” a veteran market observer told us.

When does JUFO plan to file its financials? “We’ve been one of the most compliant companies on the EGX and have never been fined since our IPO,” Investor Relations Director Khaled Daader told us this afternoon. “This is unfortunate, but it’s a short-term thing. We have two auditors: KPMG and Grant Thornton. One is more or less finished with its review and the other has asked for a final two-week extension, which would take us until mid-June. We’re hopeful we will be able to meet that deadline.” If it does, JUFO would then go before an EGX committee that meets each week and be bumped back to the “A” list.

Background: The EGX had set up the D-list of stocks in August of last year as part of a compliance grading system for listed companies. Offenders usually land on the list for repeated violations of EGX compliance rules and could face potential delisting if they remain on the list.