(Pemex, 4.May.2020) — In compliance with the Disposiciones de Carácter General aplicables a las Emisoras de Valores y a Otros Participantes del Mercado de Valores, today Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) presented to the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV, by its Spanish acronym) and the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV, by its Spanish acronym) its audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019.
With the filling of this information, PEMEX complies in due time with the regulatory obligations, since the CNBV informed that due to extraordinary situations derived from the health emergency caused by the COVID-19, the deadline to comply with the delivery of annual information for 2019 was extended until July 3, 2020.
In view of the inaccuracies reported by some media, it is important to clarify that PEMEX is complying with the deadline for filing 20-F form with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Notice that the SEC issued a rule extending the deadline for submitting annual reports, that is, it granted a benefit of 45 additional days to all companies with securities registered with the SEC. This benefit was granted because of possible complications in integrating these reports could limit the ordinary work of companies amid the pandemic contingency caused by the COVID-19.
Petróleos Mexicanos took advantage of the benefit in order to protect the health and avoid risks for the personnel that works in the integration of the annual report. It should be noted that the notice of adherence to the previous rule was carried out through the presentation, within the deadlines set by the SEC, through the 6K form.
Regarding the comments made by some media about the report of our independent external auditor on PEMEX’s financial statements for fiscal year 2019, the following clarifications are made:
The unqualified opinion was published by PEMEX’s independent external auditor. It should be noted that since 2015, the annual reports of Petróleos Mexicanos include the paragraphs related to the emphasis of “going concern”. It is important to remember that between 2013 and 2016, Petróleos Mexicanos’ debt doubled from $1 trillion pesos in 2013 to a little more than $2 trillion pesos by 2016. In contrast, so far this administration recorded a net debt reduction of $29,989 million pesos at the end of the fiscal year 2019.
Both International Financial Reporting Standards and International Standards on Auditing establish that the viability of the business must be assessed in order to continue operating and meeting its obligations for the 12 months following the end of the fiscal year.
For this reason, in response to the requirements of these standards, the independent external auditor included, as it has been doing since 2015, a paragraph of emphasis called “Uncertainty related to Going concern”, clarifying that in the case of Pemex, its opinion had not been modified in relation to this issue.
The importance of that paragraph is that, although as a matter of accounting practice, the external auditor issues comments outlining his concerns, the fundamental point is that his opinion on the possibility of a going concern has not been modified as can be read in the independent auditor opinion. This means that the actions taken by the company were sufficient and reasonable to guarantee Pemex’s operational continuity for the next 12 months (the maximum period included in the accounting standard for issuing an opinion).
In the interest of transparency with our investors, we are required to report on the going concern emphasis paragraph mentioned by the independent external auditor, as referred to in the 6K form filed with the SEC.
To provide certainty to our investors and the general public, the financial statements for fiscal year 2019, which include the external auditor’s report and are public information, may be consulted both on our website www.pemex.com in the investor relations section and on the BMV’s website.
Finally, we declare that all of our accounting records are made in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards. In the following days we will be delivering to both the BMV and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission our annual reports for fiscal year 2019, prior to the filing deadlines.
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