KPMG has ditched struggling German real estate giant Adler as an audit client less than an hour after the company told investors it was in “very professional discussions” with the Big Four firm and wanted to keep it as its auditor.
In late February, KPMG refused to sign off Adler’s 2021 financial report, saying it had been refused access to crucial documents, sending Adler’s share price down 45 per cent in a day. On Tuesday, Adler Group shares lost 12.5 per cent to reach €5.09, an all-time low.
In calls with journalists and analysts on Tuesday morning, Adler’s chair Stefan Kirsten said the company wished to keep KPMG as auditor and would “take all steps” to resolve questions on the 2021 audit as soon as possible and receive an unqualified audit for its 2022 results.
Hours later, it disclosed that it had been informed by KPMG that morning “that they are not available as auditors to Adler Group in the future”. The company said it had started the search for a new auditor “immediately” but would not be able to name one in documentation ahead of its annual general meeting, which is scheduled for June 29.
In a letter to investors, Kirsten said KPMG’s move was “a great surprise”, that was “disappointing” and “irritating”. He said he “misjudged KPMG’s clear indications of a continuation of the co-operation”, adding he had assumed KPMG’s ongoing work for Adler was “certain” until the firm told it otherwise.
KPMG declined to comment.
Kirsten conceded that the company did have “discussions and disagreements with the forensic department of KPMG”, which was last year mandated to investigate fraud allegations raised by short seller Fraser Perring’s Viceroy Research.
During this investigation, KPMG was denied access to 800,000 internal emails. In a subsequent KPMG report published by Adler, investigators found that Austrian real estate magnate Cevdet Caner, whose family had a significant stake in Adler but who had no formal role in the company, tried to improperly influence the group’s decision-making and received €12.6mn in payments for undocumented “advisory services”.
The group’s supervisory board was not informed about these money flows, and for some of the payments, the purpose “did not correspond to the agreed activities”, according to KPMG.
Adler on Tuesday also disclosed it would axe its dividend, which was €54mn last year, and that it wanted to recapitalise its property development unit Consus.
A €1bn writedown on Consus’ development portfolio wiped out more than half of the unit’s equity. Kirsten, who called Consus Adler’s “problem child” on Tuesday, said he wanted to recapitalise it without putting fresh cash into the business, adding that a debt/equity swap was a possible solution.