Oneida is the latest of a growing number of companies seeking additional time to file their annual reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The maker of flatware and crystal announced it had determined that it must report information on a greater number of segments, as required by Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 131, “Disclosures about Segments of an Enterprise and Related Information.
As a result, added Oneida, it will need more time to reassess its impairment reviews of goodwill, so it will not be able to make a timely filing of its annual report for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2004.
Last month, institutional research firm Glass, Lewis & Co. examined the filing practices of companies that operate on a calendar year. Glass, Lewis found that among those companies with a market cap of at least $100 million, 59 requested an extension of this year’s March 15 filing deadline, compared with 54 companies that sought more time in 2003. (The Glass, Lewis criterion is a little stricter than the SEC’s definition of “accelerated filer,” which is limited to U.S. companies with a market cap over $75 million that have filed annual reports with the commission.)
Keep in mind that under a new provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, companies that last year filed an audited annual report within 90 days must now file within 75 days— and next year, they’ll have to file within just 60 days.
Companies can seek a 15-day extension; most that do are in the process of restating their results. This year six companies, including Goodyear and Chartermac, requested extra time for the second year in a row. (For more on how companies are balancing more-stringent regulatory requirements with shorter filing times, read CFO’s April article “Filing Ever Faster.”)
Companies that don’t file on time are in violation of SEC rules. They may find themselves in default on bank loans — or they may be delisted from exchanges.
That’s what happened to Dynacq Healthcare, which on Friday was delisted by the Nasdaq Stock Market because it has been very late in filing its financial statements and failed to “proffer a definitive plan to fully remedy the filing delinquency.” Dynacq, which is being investigated by federal and state regulators, has not released its financial results for the year ended August 31, 2003, or for the first quarter ended November 30, 2003. Earlier this month, the company announced that it would restate its financials for the 2001 and 2002 fiscal years.
Meanwhile a large number of the 59 companies that Glass, Lewis said were seeking extensions did not wind up filing their audited annual reports when the 15-day period was up.
In a separate report, Glass, Lewis reported that 15 companies failed to file by their extended deadline, while another seven companies had yet to file their annual report or to provide notice that their deadline extension would not be met. They included Veritas, El Paso, Flowserve, Hollinger International, Mission West Properties, SPSS and Goodyear Tire and Rubber.
