Australia Samly Holdings Limited (Samly), a company listed on the Sydney Stock Exchange (formerly Asia Pacific Stock Exchange), has paid a penalty of $33,000 after ASIC served an infringement notice on the company for allegedly failing to comply with its continuous disclosure obligations.

ASIC investigated Samly's compliance with its continuous disclosure obligations following the announcement of its half year financial report on 17 March 2015. The report showed a consolidated loss after income tax of $1,064,548 for the half year ending 31 December 2014.  This was a 365% decrease from the previous corresponding half year ended 31 December 2013.

'Accurate reporting of financial circumstances and timely disclosure is inherent to fair, orderly and transparent markets,' ASIC Commissioner John Price said.

'As demonstrated by our action against Samly, when we identify issues with a company's disclosure to the market, we will take action.'

Infringement Notice

The Samly corporate group is involved in the development, manufacture and sale of health products and dietary supplements, primarily in mainland China. Samly is a non-operating Australian holding company that has direct and indirect subsidiaries located in Hong Kong and mainland China.

On 2 February 2014, Samly's mainland China based subsidiaries provided internal accounting records for the half year ending 31 December 2014 to its auditor for the purpose of an audit review. 

ASIC alleges that by 2 February 2015, Samly was aware that its operating profit/loss for the half year would be materially less than its operating profit from the previous corresponding period.

ASIC alleges that by failing to inform the Sydney Stock Exchange of this information from 2 February 2015, Samly was in breach of its continuous disclosure obligations.

Background

ASIC issued Samly with an infringement notice and the company has complied with the infringement notice and paid the penalty.

The Corporations Act provides that compliance with infringement notices is not an admission of guilt or liability.

Samly is not, by reason of its compliance with the notice, regarded as having contravened section 674(2) of the Corporations Act.

Details of the infringement notice will be published in the ASIC Gazette.