BAT looking for new auditors in wake of PwC lawsuit

British American Tobacco said yesterday that it had launched a competitive tender to appoint new external auditors for 2015 onwards. Three firms had been invited to take part in the tender process: Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and KPMG.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which had been BAT’s auditors since the tobacco company listed on the London Stock Exchange in September 1998, was not seeking re-appointment as the group’s auditors at the 2015 AGM.

‘This situation has arisen as a result of proposed litigation by a Group subsidiary against PwC,’ BAT said in a note posted on its website. ‘The potential claims against PwC, which have been assigned to the Group, arose from work carried out by PwC in relation to the audit of the accounts of a third party. These claims do not concern the audit of any BAT Group company.’

Writing in The Independent, Simon Neville said BAT had ‘dumped’ its auditors PwC and taken them to court over a potential $1bn (£651m) US environmental damages bill.

Neville’s piece is at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/british-american-tobacco-drops-and-sues-pwc-over-pollution-scandal-10081476.html#.