Shares of Aries Agro recovered on Thursday after plunging 13 per cent on Wednesday following a revision in its earning per share details.
In a rare incident, Aries Agro reissued its financial results hours after it was dispatched to stock exchanges with a major correction in the earnings per share figure, the key indicator of investor earnings.
The company, which manufactures micro-nutrients and customised nutritional products for plants and animals, has stoked investors concern with changes across quarters included in the financial statement for the financial year ended March 31, 2017.
For instance, the consolidated EPS for the March quarter of FY17 was revised to ₹1.74 from ₹0.02, indicating a much wider loss per equity share while the comparative revision from the same period last year was ₹5.72 against ₹0.06 reported for the first time.
Similarly, the number for December quarter was corrected to ₹1.91 against ₹0.02 reported in the first instance.
On a standalone basis, the EPS for March quarter of FY17 was revised to ₹0.94 from ₹0.01. It was changed to ₹2.25 for FY16 against ₹0.02. For FY17, the EPS was revised to ₹5.43 against ₹0.05 reported while for FY16 the number was revised to ₹9.11 from ₹0.09.
Without assigning any specific reason for the revision in EPS, the company in a statement to BSE said “we wish to state that inadvertently the EPS figure of the statement of the results was erroneously calculated.”
Need for probe: analysts Accordingly, it added, enclosed herewith is the corrected Statement of the Audited Financial Results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2017.
Analysts are raising serious questions about the misreporting of figures.
“It is high time, the exchanges should probe such companies which are misreporting (whether intentional or unintentional) even the basic financial details and causing huge losses to the investors.”
According to its shareholding pattern, public holding stands at 47.34 per cent in the company. Among them include, ace investor Vijay Kishanlal Kedia, who owns about 4.6 per cent stake. About 9,200 small shareholders hold 23.28 per cent stake in the Mirchandani(s)-controlled firm.
On Thursday, the shares of the company managed to recover and close at ₹149.35, up 5.25 per cent, on the BSE.