Company, which announced job cuts and closures last week, seeks replacement for Deloitte
Lookers has been investigating a potential fraud within the business.
Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA
The car dealership Lookers will be parting company with its auditor Deloitte after the publication of the chain’s full-year results, which have been further delayed following an investigation into potential fraud inside the business.
Lookers, which last week said it planned to cut 1,500 jobs and close 12 dealerships, confirmed on Monday that it was seeking a new auditor, after Deloitte told the company it intended to resign when the chain’s full-year results were eventually published.
Last week, Lookers said it intended to publish its results by the end of the month and that a draft report by Grant Thornton, which is investigating suspicious transactions at one of its divisions, had been shared with Deloitte “for review in the context of their audit opinion”.
The company said: “Having discussed the draft report with Deloitte and with that report to be finalised, the company has concluded that the additional procedures that the company and Deloitte will now need to perform in order to finalise the 2019 results means it will not be possible to publish by 30 June.”
It first postponed publication of its full-year results in March, when it revealed it was investigating a potential fraud within the business.
Lookers’ share price has fallen by two-thirds over the past year and it said on Monday that the failure to meet the latest deadline for filing its results meant that trading in the company’s shares would be temporarily suspended from 1 July.
“The company’s priority and focus is the production of the 2019 results at the earliest possible date and by no later than the end of August,” the company said. “The board and the company’s finance team is working closely with Deloitte and is developing an action plan to ensure that the additional work required to allow publication of the 2019 results is completed as soon as possible.”
Lookers, which operates 164 car dealerships, said it had started a tender process to appoint a new auditor.
Last week, new figures showed May car sales in the UK to be the worst since 1952. Only 20,000 new cars were registered in May, compared with 184,000 during the same month last year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
Just over half a million new cars have been sold in the first five months of this year, compared with more than 1 million at the same point last year.