(Alliance News) - PureCircle Ltd on Thursday said it will restate its results for financial 2017 and 2018 following an accounting probe, with the stevia producer yet to report its earnings for the year ended June 30, 2019.
Shares in PureCircle are suspended from trading in London. It announced the delay to its financial 2019 results back in September.
Also in September, the company appointed KPMG LLP to investigate issues related to the "classification and valuation" of PureCircle's inventory.
The firm on Thursday said the probe is now completed and it can "quantify the necessary adjustments" it must make to previous annual reports.
PureCircle explained: "The company's assessment is that those issues have had the cumulative effect of reducing inventory by approximately USD23 million and consequently increasing cost of goods sold by the same amount, spread across financial years 2018 and 2019, with potentially a relatively modest adjustment to 2017.
"The investigations identified apparent override of controls by members of senior management that may have contributed to the historical misstatements of the company's results going undetected."
The firm said that following the investigation, it will reduce its sales in financial 2018 by USD5.9 million and in 2017 by USD2.2 million.
PureCircle added: "The company does not expect these amounts to change materially in its audited financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2019, but still subject to any further audit adjustments."
The company also added that its Chief Restructuring Officer James Ritchie has left the company "having completed the assignment he was engaged to deliver".
Its been a challenging time for PureCircle of late, besides its delayed annual report, its Chief Executive Magomet Malsagov in November agreed to temporarily step aside as the company grappled with its accounting issues.
PureCircle in January named Peter Lai Hock Meng as CEO with effect March 2.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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