China property developer Country Garden removes PwC as auditor

(Reuters) -Country Garden Holdings said on Thursday that PwC has agreed to resign as its auditor, as the property developer became the latest Chinese company to sever ties with the firm.

Country Garden said in an exchange filing that it had appointed Hong Kong-based Zhonghui Anda CPA as its new auditor, at least until the conclusion of its next annual general meeting.

PwC has been in focus over its role in auditing China Evergrande Group which was accused of a $78 billion fraud, triggering a client exodus, cost cuts and layoffs.

PwC told Reuters that it was not in a position to comment on client related matters when asked about Country Garden.

More than 50 Chinese firms, including PwC's largest mainland client Bank of China and many state-owned enterprises or financial institutions, have either dropped PwC as their auditor or cancelled their plans to hire it.

Country Garden said the change of auditor was because PwC was unable to fulfil the timetable to publish its audited 2023 financial statements "considering recent relevant matters related to the company's auditor and market information".

Once a top developer by sales, Country Garden is undergoing an offshore debt restructuring after defaulting on its $11 billion offshore bonds last year. Its shares have been suspended from trading since April 2 pending the release of its 2023 full year and 2024 interim financial results.

"The group is actively pushing forward the holistic restructuring and working towards the resumption of trading in the shares..., and it is particularly important and critical to complete the audit of the consolidated financial statements ...as soon as practicable," it added.

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru and Clare Jim in Hong Kong; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Alexander Smith)