Financial Services Association, April 29 (Reporter Wu Xin) Last night, 001169.SZ issued an announcement stating that independent director Chen Aihua abstained from voting on relevant bills such as annual reports and quarterly reports, and cannot guarantee the truth, accuracy, and completeness of the 2023 Annual Report and the 2024 First Quarter Report.

Recently, companies such as Gaga Foods (002650.SZ) and Suert (002538.SZ) also issued similar announcements. Analysts told the Financial Federation reporter that the new sole director regulations implemented last year and the “Opinions on Strengthening the Supervision of Listed Companies (Trial)” recently issued by the Securities Regulatory Commission play a great regulatory role in reminding sole directors of listed companies to “be careful and do their part.”

A number of sole directors of listed companies “abstained”

According to information, in addition to serving as an independent director of 0000, Chen Aihua is also a member of the company's nomination committee, audit committee member, audit committee chairman, etc. Furthermore, according to public information, Yuan Yue, the chairman and corporation of 009, is the founder of the influencer creative bookstore “Say a Few Words Again.”

Chen Aihua's reasons for abstaining were related to supplier selection, use of fund-raising funds, and large R&D expenses. Specifically, Chen Aihua believes that the quality of accounting information relating to the supplier selection, pricing, and adjustment mechanisms for important outsourcing, labor, and technical service costs needs to be further reviewed and verified in detail.

The announcement also mentioned that with regard to the three fund-raising projects, whether the large amount of “application component outsourcing development” that has occurred is a change in the use of fund-raising funds or structural adjustments, and processing conclusions are yet to be determined. Furthermore, Chen Aihua also abstained from voting on eight bills relating to large R&D expenses, believing that the relevant bills require further thorough and detailed review and verification.

According to the annual report, Zero Point achieved operating income of 377 million yuan in 2023, an increase of 16.27% over the previous year; however, net profit fell from a loss of 11 million yuan in 2022 to a loss of 53 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 403.78%.

In addition to zero points, recently, many listed companies have also issued similar announcements, such as Gaga Foods, Sirte, etc. According to Gaga Foods, independent director Yao Lushi abstained from voting on annual reports and other bills because it was discovered that the company had problems with internal control of related party transactions, flawed investment management, and management of subsidiaries.

Due to the employee's alleged crime of encroachment on his position, Stewart, who issued a non-standard audit opinion on the 2023 financial report, two independent directors abstained from voting on the company's annual report and other related bills, and there is no guarantee that the content of the 2023 annual report is true, accurate, and complete.

Sole directors must play a supervisory role and “do their part”

A Financial Services Association reporter noticed that the “timely clarification” behavior of many independent directors may be related to the “Opinions on Strengthening the Supervision of Listed Companies (Trial)” issued by the Securities Regulatory Commission on March 15. Independent directors who do not act or are incompetent may gradually be “supported” under regulatory pressure.

The Securities Regulatory Commission called for the consolidation of the responsibilities of listed companies and intermediaries, and emphasized “effectively playing the supervisory role of independent directors and strengthening the audit committee's anti-fraud responsibilities.” Furthermore, audit and evaluation agencies are resolutely “double investigated in one case” and filed in parallel, and illegal cases such as collusion and fraud are severely punished, and for intermediaries that have committed major violations of laws and regulations, the system of suspending or prohibiting them from engaging in securities service business, revoking license to practice, and banning employees from entering the business.

The reporter noticed that recently, several sole directors of listed companies have also been punished for not being able to perform their duties with due diligence. Earlier, the Guangdong Securities Regulatory Bureau issued an administrative penalty decision, stating that He, who was the sole director of the Soyute (delisted), as the director of the Audit Committee of the Soyute Board of Directors and an independent director with an accounting background, did not pay due attention to the lack of supervision and management of Sogute's important financial subsidiaries, did not pay careful attention to the relevant content of Souyu Te's 2021 annual report, and took sufficient measures to verify (under the circumstances), and signed to confirm that the 2021 annual report of Souyu Te was true, accurate, complete, and not diligent and conscientious.

According to the penalty decision, Ho, as the other person directly responsible for searching for false records in Yute's 2021 annual report, was warned and fined 500,000 yuan by the supervisory authority, while the independent director Ho's salary recorded in the company's 2022 annual report was 110,000 yuan.