Other developers said the resignation of auditors meant they could not issue their financial year 2021 earnings on time, according to Japanese bank Nomura.
Developer Ronshine said Monday that PricewaterhouseCoopers has quit, citing insufficient time for the audit as well as the Covid resurgence in China as two main reasons for the resignation. In the past two months, developers such as Aoyuan, Shanghai Shimao and Hopson also announced change of auditors.
"When developers change auditors ahead of their full-year results season, it typically raises red flags regarding potential auditing issues and should lead to serious market concerns about the trustworthiness of their financial numbers," Nomura said in a Monday note.As of Monday, nine property developers have yet to announce the dates of their FY2021 board meetings, Nomura noted.
The likelihood of more developers being unable to release their results on time is rising, Nomura said, considering that listed firms need to announce their board meeting dates at least seven working days prior to their actual results dates – which are set to be 31 March by the latest.