Abra Mining [AR] suspended (again) for failing to file reports

The PSE gave notice that Abra Mining [AR susp] had failed to comply with the exchange’s requirement to provide audited financial statements for FY20 and Q1 on time, and said that AR’s shares would “remain suspended until further notice” as a result.

AR joins Philippine Airlines [PAL 6.05 susp] and Cyber Bay Corp. [CYBER 0.330 susp] as the only companies that have received a trading suspension for failure to provide financial statements before the twice-extended deadline, except that AR has the dubious distinction of being the only one of the three to have already been suspended for completely unrelated issues.

Remember when it was discovered back at the beginning of March that AR had been selling extra shares for trading on the market that had not been properly recorded on its books? The PSE suspended trading in AR shares for that little problem back on March 4, leaving thousands of traders stuck in AR trades that perhaps weren’t that healthy to begin with (but that certainly look a lot less healthy now).

MB BOTTOM-LINE

AR is a mess, and the whole situation has left many frustrated; both for the PSE’s weird handling of the initial stock registration problems (the PSE offered to broker a “white knight” to takeover AR to keep it publicly traded), and the continued lack of communication from AR, the PSE, or the SEC on what the next steps might be in some kind of issue resolution process.

AR was the most-traded stock on the exchange at the time of its suspension, and stock forums are starting to pile up with messages from frustrated retail traders wondering how they can recover any of the money that is stranded in AR’s frozen stock. In search and rescue terms, the traders’ efforts have shifted from “rescue” to “recovery” now as it’s becoming more clear by the day that they aren’t going to come out of this clusterduck (yes, duck) with 100% of what they put in.

The recent re-suspension just adds to that sinking feeling that this fiasco is not going away any time soon. I’m not saying that the PSE should step in to make traders whole, but I am saying that the PSE/SEC need to pull these kinds of weeds quickly and develop some better processes to keep our garden of public companies happy and healthy.

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