Gulf companies pay for lack of transparency

Stock market downturns invariably reveal mistakes and failures previously concealed when markets were buoyant, often leading analysts and officials to call for increased transparency and improved regulation.

Reporting and governance are areas where analysts and asset managers say most Gulf companies have much room for improvement.

Quarterly results are frequently late, they say, and often only in Arabic; companies rarely have an investor relations team; access to executives is often negligible; and bankers are increasingly questioning the true worth of reported balance sheets.