Deloitte quit after not getting auditorship of other group companies: APSEZ

The board of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) has appointed MSKA & Associates, an independent member firm of BDO International, as its auditor.

In a statement, the company said since May 2017, Deloitte has been APSEZ’s statutory auditor and was reappointed as its statutory auditor for another term of five years in 2022. 

“In Deloitte’s recent meeting with APSEZ management and its Audit Committee, which, by policy, is comprised of and chaired by independent directors including G K Pillai, Prof G Raghuram, P S Jayakumar and Nirupama Rao), Deloitte indicated a lack of a wider audit role as auditors of other listed Adani portfolio companies,” it said.

“The Audit Committee believed that the grounds advanced by Deloitte for resignation as statutory auditor were not convincing or sufficient to warrant such a move.”

“It was also conveyed that it is not within the remit of 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,” the statement said.

“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,” it said.

“It is important to mention that, in response to a query by the Audit Committee, Deloitte confirmed that they have received all the APSEZ information from the management of the company. The same has been confirmed by Deloitte in their resignation letter dated August 12, 2023 to the company.

The ‘Other Matters’ highlighted in the auditor’s resignation are adequately disclosed and addressed in our FY23 financial statements. We are fully confident that these matters will be appropriately resolved in our September 2023 filing,” the statement by Gopal Krishna Pillai, Chairman of the Audit Committee, APSEZ, said.