Asda has been pressed to share a draft copy of its results with investors after its auditor failed to sign off in time on company accounts.
According to The Telegraph, the supermarket’s bosses decided to share a private presentation with lenders late last month showing unaudited profits and sales.
The figures showed a return to profit for the supermarket, after it made a £112m loss in 2022.
Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest news straight into your inbox each morning
The supermarket chain was forced to delay its results after EY stepped back as the company’s auditor last July after it emerged one of its former partners had a romantic relationship with Asda co-owner Mohsin Issa.
The Big Four firm was replaced by KPMG, although Asda failed to publicly disclose the change at the time.
A source close to Asda said investors are updated quarterly on the company’s performance and its full-year results will be signed off at the end of the month.
They added: “We are fully on track with this year’s audit, which will be in line with the finalised accounts we put out at the end of April – in both 2023 and 2022. When we sent out our results to media last year in March—they were unaudited.”
An Asda spokesperson said: “We made strong progress against our strategy in 2023 with significant investment in the business to drive long-term sustainable growth, while continuing to deleverage and repay debt.”
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
