Adani Ports names new auditor, says Deloitte's reason to leave unconvincing
MUMBAI: The audit committee of Adani Port and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) has appointed MSK & Associates as the company’s auditor after the resignation of Deloitte & Haskin LLP.
MSK & Associates is an independent member firm of BDO International, a top 6 global audit firm.
In a statement issued on Saturday, GK Pillai, chairman of Audit Committee of APSEZ, said that the committee is of the view that the reason given by Deloitte for resignation as statutory auditor were not convincing or sufficient to warrant such a move.
The resignation comes weeks after Deloitte raised concern over certain transactions flagged in the report of Hindenburg Research.
According to the company, in a recent meeting with the management of the company, Deloitte had indicated a lack of a wider audit role as auditors of other listed Adani portfolio companies. However, the audit committee conveyed to Deloitte that it is not within the remit of the APSEZ and its board to recommend group-wide appointments as other listed Adani portfolio companies are completely independent, with separate boards, executive teams and minority shareholders.
“Following this, Deloitte was not willing to continue as APSEZ’s statutory auditor and, therefore, it was agreed to amicably end the client-auditor contractual relationship between APSEZ and Deloitte,” the statement says.
The company, however, says that Deloitte has confirmed that they have received all the APSEZ information from the management of the company, and that the same has been confirmed by Deloitte in their resignation letter dated August 12, 2023 to the company.
Deloitte has been the statutory auditor of APSEZ since May 2017. In July 2022, the company reappointed Deloitte as its statutory auditor for another term of five years.
In its resignation letter, Deloitte has said that it is tendering its resignation as statutory auditor of the company with immediate effect because it is not the auditor of a substantial number of Adani Group companies.
Deloitte has raised certain matters in its resignation letter, on which APSEZ has said that the highlighted issues are adequately disclosed and addressed in the company’s FY23 financial statements. “We are fully confident that these matters will be appropriately resolved in our September 2023 filing,” said GK Pillai in his statement.