The financial statements of Finacorp, a stockbroker on the Tunis Stock Exchange (TSE), as of December 31, 2025, paint the picture of a company whose core business is no longer feeding its bottom line. A loss approaching one million dinars, collapsed brokerage revenues, insufficient regulatory capital. The auditor attached four observations to his report. A breakdown of a model running on empty.
A business that no longer pays
The core business has all but dried up. Brokerage income amounted to just 111,833 dinars for the financial year. For a firm whose primary business is brokerage, that figure is negligible. Meanwhile, expenses have not adjusted accordingly. The wage bill remains inflexible at 813,643 dinars, completely out of proportion to the company’s actual level of activity. The result is a net loss of nearly one million dinars.
What once cushioned these setbacks has also disappeared. The company’s investment portfolio, which previously generated financial income that offset weak brokerage revenues, has been liquidated. Stripped of that buffer, Finacorp is now absorbing its operating losses with no safety net.
Four Red Flags
The external auditor did more than simply certify the financial statements. The audit report includes four observations. The first concerns risk coverage, noting that the company’s net equity is insufficient to meet regulatory capital requirements. The second highlights a potential tax exposure stemming from the risk of a tax reassessment. The third relates to debt collection, indicating that a significant portion of trade receivables appears unlikely to be recovered. The fourth raises concerns about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern, with its future remaining contingent on corrective measures being implemented. Together, these four observations point to the same underlying vulnerability.
The Real Threat Is Regulatory
One could dwell on another striking item in this bleak picture—Note 23, which discloses an annual gross salary, paid over thirteen months, amounting to several hundred thousand dinars and accounting for 45.3% of the company’s total payroll. However, there are more pressing issues.
On paper, the company is still solvent. Its shareholders’ equity stands at 1.183 million dinars, remaining positive and above half of its share capital, thereby keeping it, for the time being, outside the scope of Article 388 of the Commercial Companies Code. But the margin is slim—just 433,279 dinars above the regulatory threshold. More worrying is the trend: shareholders’ equity has shrunk by 45.1% in a single year. Should a loss of similar magnitude be recorded again, the company would fall below the critical threshold as early as the next financial year.
The immediate risk is regulatory
The immediate threat is not an accounting one, but a regulatory one. The shortfall in regulatory capital required for risk coverage has not been remedied, despite an order from Tunisia’s Financial Market Council (CMF), whose compliance deadline expired on June 30, 2025. The company’s very licence to operate as a stockbroker is therefore at risk. That is the sword of Damocles hanging over Finacorp.
What the accounts reveal
Finacorp’s financial statements portray a brokerage firm whose business model no longer generates enough revenue to cover its costs. Core brokerage income has collapsed, fixed costs remain inflexible, the investment portfolio that once cushioned weak operating performance has been liquidated, and a large share of client receivables appears unrecoverable. The company’s survival will depend on restoring its regulatory capital, most likely through a recapitalization, and fundamentally restructuring a cost base that is no longer aligned with its level of activity.
One caveat should be noted. The financial statements do not disclose the precise regulatory capital thresholds required by the CMF. While the auditor confirms that the company falls short of these requirements, the report does not quantify the deficit. Assessing the size of the recapitaliation needed would therefore require access to the CMF’s notification dated April 15, 2025, which was not attached to the financial statements.
Finacorp responds
Asked to comment, the brokerage firm said the decline in business activity is temporary and stems from the restructuring of its workforce following the retirement of key personnel and the outsourcing of certain functions, including accounting. It expects revenues to resume an upward trajectory while maintaining a leaner payroll by the end of 2026, with the full benefits of these measures materializing in 2027.
Regarding its 2025 financial result, Finacorp said the reported loss largely reflects a significant—but reversible—provision related to a single doubtful client, as well as the deferred recognition of financial income. According to the company, the final loss will not exceed 406,000 dinars.
On its tax exposure, including the disputed 266,000-dinar tax reassessment, the brokerage said the outstanding amount had fallen to approximately 212,000 dinars as of May 31, 2026, following payments it had made. This figure does not take into account tax refunds totalling 579,085 dinars (Note 5), which the company says it is still claiming.
Responding to the auditor’s observations, Finacorp stressed that these do not constitute audit qualifications and noted that the auditor had certified the fairness of its financial statements. It argued that the only substantive issues raised were the tax reassessment—already addressed in its comments on its tax exposure—and the “insufficiency of shareholders’ equity.”
According to the brokerage, the expression “insufficiency of shareholders’ equity” refers to a regulatory ratio established by the CMF, which the company discussed extensively with the regulator’s representatives on October 21, 2025. It subsequently submitted a follow-up email to the CMF on November 17, 2025, but says it has yet to receive a response.
Finacorp added that its shareholders remain committed to injecting additional capital if required following the review they have requested. The company’s representative concluded by reiterating that its clients are not exposed to any form of risk, that Finacorp itself has no financial debt, and that both its business activity and financial performance are expected to return to positive territory from 2027 onward.
