Adler Finds Small Auditor to Vet Results After Long Search

Adler Group SA has found a small audit firm to vet its financial accounts after the embattled real estate firm failed for almost one and a half years to hire one.

(Bloomberg) — Adler Group SA has found a small audit firm to vet its financial accounts after the embattled real estate firm failed for almost one and a half years to hire one.

Luxembourg-based Avega Revision has agreed to be appointed as auditor for the firm’s 2022 and 2023 results, Adler said in a statement late Monday. Avega has fewer than 50 staff, Adler Chairman Stefan Kirsten told journalists on Tuesday.

Adler only chose the small outfit because all the larger firms it had tried previously had turned down the mandate, Kirsten said. Adler will need to line up a few more companies to assist Avega given the firm’s size, he said.

The real estate company has been trying to hire a new auditor since its previous one, KPMG, quit in May last year. While it signed up German firm Roedl & Partner last April for its local subsidiary Adler Real Estate, all efforts to mandate an auditor for the entire group had failed since.

KPMG’s decision to drop Adler as a client came after it refused to give an opinion on the company’s 2021 accounts and said its audit report on Adler’s 2020 financial statements should no longer be relied on.

KPMG is a member of the so-called Big Four audit firms, a group that also includes Ernst & Young LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Deloitte. Its Luxembourg unit, which was in charge of auditing Adler, had 1,800 employees at the end of last year, according to its website.

Read More: Adler’s Latest Blow Adds Another Obstacle in Hunt for Auditor

The German auditing lobby IDW said last year that there had never been a comparable case where a listed company didn’t have an auditor for such a long time.

The appointment of Avega as auditor will need to be approved by Adler’s general meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Nov. 27.

(Updates with chairman comments in second and third paragraph)

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