Austrian IT company S&T has commissioned Deloitte to conduct an external audit following allegations made by activist investor Viceroy Research, it said on Tuesday.
After a report by Viceroy published this month hammered the S&T’s share price, the company published a detailed response to the allegations.
“Our statement shows that Viceroy Research has made numerous far-reaching misjudgments in its report, which do not stand up to an objective examination,” S&T Chief Executive Hannes Niederhauser said, adding that Viceroy did not contact the company before publishing its report.
The allegations refered to the company’s corporate structure, “off-balance sheet entities” and its businesses in eastern Europe.
S&T said its supervisory board will appoint an external, independent expert as Chief Compliance Officer to be responsible for legal, compliance and corporate governance on its executive board.
“We will comment on the results of this independent audit as soon as these are available,” Niederhauser said.
The supervisory board will also propose appointing KPMG as the new auditor from the 2022 financial year, replacing EY, it added.
“Operationally, we continue to be within the expected range and maintain our current guidance for the current fiscal year,” Niederhauser added.
S&T’s Austrian-listed shares were up 5.1% by 0820 GMT, while the German-listed shares were 4.4% higher after Tuesday’s statement
– Reuters