Saudi Regulator Starts Probe Into Telco Mobily After Earnings Revision

Saudi Arabia’s market regulator has begun an investigation to determine whether Mobily violated bourse rules, it said on Monday, after the company restated 18 months of earnings and reported a 71 per cent drop in third-quarter net profit.

Mobily had been expected to report its third-quarter earnings last week, but asked for its shares to be suspended on Thursday, seeking more time to review unspecified “significant matters” in its financial statements.

“The regulator has started investigations to determine any violations by the company towards the bourse rules,” a bourse statement from the Capital Market Authority (CMA) said.

On Monday, Mobily reported a shock profit drop as well as re-stating its earnings, cutting its 2013 profit by SAR740 million ($197.3 million) and profit for the first-half of 2014 by SAR688 million due to what it said were accounting errors.

Trading in Mobily’s shares will resume on Tuesday, the CMA statement added.