The time for A-share listed companies to disclose their annual reports in 2021 is getting closer and closer. However, at this point, some listed companies intend to change their audit institutions, including many * ST companies. Insiders reminded investors to keep an eye on the * ST company issued a non-standard audit report last year and invest cautiously.
Several ST companies changed their audit institutions
Following the announcement on the proposed change of accounting firm on Tempus Global Business Service Group Holding Ltd(300178) on the 19th, ST company also issued the corresponding announcement on the proposed appointment of accounting firm on Henan Kedi Dairy Co.Ltd(002770) , Lead Eastern Investment Co.Ltd(000673) and other Tuesday. Among them, Henan Kedi Dairy Co.Ltd(002770) said that due to the reasons of the company’s original audit institution Asia Pacific firm and the planning and arrangement of annual audit tasks, the company would not renew the appointment, and the company planned to appoint Tianping firm as the company’s audit institution in 2021. It is noteworthy that the type of audit opinion in Henan Kedi Dairy Co.Ltd(002770) 2020 is “unable to express an opinion”.
Up to now, more than 400 listed companies have replaced the auditor of 2021 annual report or have not hired an auditor, and some listed companies have also received letters of concern from regulators. According to the reporter’s incomplete statistics, there are about 40 * ST companies that have replaced the annual report audit institution in 2021 or have not hired the annual report audit institution, of which more than 10 are audit reports with “unable to express opinions” in 2020.
Refer to previous audit reports and invest cautiously
According to the corresponding provisions of the new delisting regulations, listed enterprises that touch the financial delisting indicators and are subject to delisting risk warning (* st) may face delisting risk if the 2021 financial report is issued with an audit report of “qualified opinion, unable to express opinion or negative opinion”. In other words, the audit opinions issued by audit institutions affect whether listed enterprises will face delisting risk.
According to the handling of cases in 2021 reported by the CSRC last Friday, the CSRC handled a total of 609 cases in 2021, including 163 major cases, involving typical illegal acts such as financial fraud and the failure of intermediaries to exercise due diligence, while the number of false statements, insider trading, market manipulation and illegal cases of intermediaries accounted for more than 80%. Among them, the number of illegal cases of intermediaries increased, with 39 cases filed for investigation throughout the year, an increase of more than double over the same period last year, involving 28 accounting firms, covering business links such as annual report audit. Annual report audit is the focus of cases. A total of 16 accounting firms are suspected of failing to perform their duties diligently in the annual report audit of more than 20 companies, and some have been filed for investigation six times within a year, resulting in the failure of internal risk control, Some even assist listed companies in counterfeiting, avoid compulsory delisting and act as accomplices to counterfeiting.
In this regard, insiders pointed out that investors should keep an eye on the listed enterprises that were issued with non-standard audit reports last year and invest cautiously.
