LifeStar Insurance plc, together with parent company LifeStar Holding plc, on Friday announced that the publication of their Annual Financial Reports for 2023 will be delayed further due technical issues.

This comes over a month after the two companies released a joint announcement stating that there were technical delays in the implementation and integration of third-party software for the computation of financial statements under the IFRS 17 standard.

IFRS 17 is an international financial reporting standard issued by the International Accounting Standards Board in 2017 which became effective on 1st January 2023. It states which insurance contracts items should be on the balance and the profit and loss account of an insurance company, how to measure these items, and how to present and disclose the information.

LifeStar stated that “significant progress” has been registered over the past weeks, yet “some persistent and unanticipated technical issues” tied to the transition to the IFRS 17 standard have further delayed the process.

The statement also confirmed that the technical issues are “the only hold up” to the conclusion of the financial statements and audit process.

“These snags in the integration of the third-party software and extraction of data required under the IFRS 17 standard has meant that the process for certain aspects of the audit has been delayed in commencing and subsequently in being concluded,” LifeStar affirmed.

LifeStar added that its Audit Committee is meeting regularly to closely monitor the efforts being made by all parties involved in the preparation and conclusion of the financial statements. “The Board of Directors is fully committed to ensure the integrity of the reported figures and therefore the audit process needs to take its course,” the two companies continued.

The Board of Directors expects that it “should soon be able” to set a date for the meeting to consider and approve the report.

“The date will be announced to the market as soon as practicable,” the statement concluded.

The two LifeStar companies, like many other public-listed companies, have their financial year coincide with their calendar year. As a result, the publication of the report would have normally been made at around March or April.

LifeStar Insurance plc, formerly GlobalCapital, is a provider of insurance products in Malta, offering a range of protection, savings, investment, and retirement life insurance products.