Class action against Mobily's former executives accepted

The Capital Market Authority (CMA) said in a statement that the Appeal Committee for Resolution of Securities Disputes (ACRSD) has accepted the class action filed by an investor against a number of Etihad Etisalat Co.'s (Mobily) former top executives and board members, against whom a final resolution was issued.

Any person who bought the company's shares after the announcement of its preliminary financial results for Q2 2013, which included misleading and inaccurate data, and kept the shares until the company's stock was halted by the close of trading on Oct. 29, 2014, is required to file with the committee to join the above-stated collective lawsuit, within 90 days from Dec. 6.

The market regulator explained that Oct. 29, 2014 was the last date of trading Mobily shares before the telecom operator announced on Nov. 3, 2014 its preliminary financial results for Q3 2014, and ahead of the company's disclosure about providing misleading information in its financials at the time of revenue recognition, and amending the financial results for the previous fiscal periods.

Last October, ACRSD convicted a number of Mobily’s former executives of violating the Capital Market Law, according to the General Secretariat of the Committees for Resolution of Securities Disputes (GS-CRSD), Argaam reported.

Mobily’s executives were charged of violations that led to a false and misleading impression about the value of its stock. They stated incorrect data in the company’s financials for Q2, Q3, and Q4 of FY2013 and Q1, Q2 and Q3 of FY2014, which inflated the telecom’ revenue over these quarters.

These officials were Badr bin Saleh bin Hamoud Altarifi, Muhammad Hefni Mahmoud Thabet, Khalid bin Omar bin Mohsen Alkaf, Thamer bin Muhammad bin Abdullah Alhosani, and Ahmed Hussein Ali Abdulnabi.