Adani Group has replaced Deloitte as the Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) auditor with the accounting firm MSKA & Associates. The group declared on Saturday that Deloitte’s justifications for quitting as the company’s auditor were “not convincing.”
According to information provided on Saturday by Adani Group, MSKA and Associates is a member firm of BDO International, one of the top six worldwide audit companies, and it provides accounting services in India.
Bloomberg reported on August 11 that Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP had informed Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd. of its plans to quit, and a formal statement was anticipated in the coming days.
For more information on Deloitte, Deloitte has served as the statutory auditor of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) since May 2017, according to Adani. Deloitte was reappointed by APSEZ as its statutory auditor in July 2022 for an additional five-year term. Deloitte recently met with the APSEZ management and its Audit Committee, which is made up entirely of independent directors and is led by one of them (Mr. G. K. Pillai, Prof. G. Raghuram, Mr. P. S. Jayakumar, and Mrs. Nirupama Rao).
“The Audit Committee believed that the justifications put forth by Deloitte for resigning as Statutory Auditor were neither compelling nor sufficient to support such a decision. Additionally, it was said that the APSEZ and its Board do not have the authority to approve group-wide selections because the other listed Adani portfolio firms have independent boards, executive teams, and minority shareholders. Deloitte therefore declined to continue serving as APSEZ’s statutory auditor, and as a result, an amicable termination of the client-auditor contractual relationship between APSEZ and Deloitte was reached, according to the statement.
It is significant to note that Deloitte verified receiving all the APSEZ material from the Company’s management in answer to a question posed by the Audit Committee. Adani Group added that Deloitte confirmed the same in their resignation letter dated August 12, 2023 to the Company.
“Our FY23 financial statements appropriately disclose and address the ‘Other Matters’ outlined in the auditor’s departure. We have every confidence that these issues will be properly addressed in our filing in September ’23,” the statement continued.
