Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings announced today that the Company will be delayed in filing its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31st, 2017, beyond the extended deadline of April 2nd, 2018 due to the Clear Outdoor misapropriation scandal that bursted on January this year in Hong Kong.
PRC police started off an investigation some months ago and the Hongkongese non wholy owned subsidiary of the outdoor holding explained that one employee in the Finance Department of the Group, who worked as cashier, admitted before the police to have illegally misappropriated a certain amount of funds of the Group.
Reuters informed on 3rd January this year that the amount that could be misapropriated by the employee amounts to about Yuan 76 million (around $11.7 million).
The company’s balances with other banks were not affected the Chinese company said at that time and assured the case did not impact Clear Channel’s day-to-day operations.
Clear Media has not revealed the name of the employee and last january announced that an internal commission had been created to investigate the case.
But the scandal in Hong Kong is now impacting both the normal trading of the shares of the group at NYSE as it has been suspended by the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission), as well the needed closing on time of the outdoor group’s 2017 accounts while the PRC police investigation is still ongoing.
Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. is one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising companies, with over 580,000 displays in 31 countries across four continents, including 43 of the 50 largest markets in the United States. Its digital platform now offers more than 1,100 digital billboards across 28 markets in the United States. Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc.’s International segment operates in 18 countries across Asia and Europe in a wide variety of formats.
Image over the headline.- © Clear Channel
