Latest news with #JustAudit
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Big cruise line appoints small firm in Oxfordshire to audit accounts in surprise move
A major cruise line has appointed a firm with just four staff members based in Oxfordshire to audit its accounts, according to national reports. P&O Ferries has appointed Just Audit & Assurance (JAA), which has four employees and is based in the market town of Witney, reports ITV News. The ferry operator, which reported sales of £918 million 2022, provides cruises across the English Channel, North Sea, and Irish Sea, and employs 1350 people around its network, according to its website. READ MORE: Firefighter who died while on duty had 'found calling in life', says colleague JAA replaces International accountancy firm KPMG, which resigned as P&O's auditor in March, citing it said it had experienced in preparing the company's 2023 accounts. On its website, JAA describes itself as a 'specialist firm created to address the specialist needs of the smaller company and charity audits'. It also says it focuses on 'owner-managed businesses requiring audits, large groups' UK subsidiaries, and UK-registered charities'. Aside from Witney, the small firm has multiple other locations across the UK in Banbury, Gerrards Cross, and Wendover. READ MORE: Manhunt after 'several large Easter eggs' stolen from garage JAA trades from the same address on Market Square in Witney as Rees Russell, a firm of chartered accountants and tax advisers. Jonathan Russell is a director of both companies. On its website, Rees Russell says 'we do things differently' and that accountancy is 'about much more than just getting your accounts in on time'.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
P&O Ferries hires four-man firm after accounting fiasco
P&O Ferries has hired a four-person accountancy firm as its auditor after KPMG quit the account abruptly this year. Just Audit & Assurance, which describes itself as 'a specialist firm created to address the specialist needs of the smaller company and charity audits', will audit the ferry operator's accounts, which are overdue. Experts said the decision to appoint such a small auditor raised potential concerns over the financial health and governance standards of P&O Ferries. Atul Shah, a professor of accounting at City St George's, University of London, said: 'This is pure and simple opinion shopping, something which a public interest and regulated profession should strongly and publicly reprimand.' Notably, large corporations almost always use larger and more established firms to audit their accounts owing to the complexity of the work involved and the scale of the work required. Just Audit & Assurance, is based in Witney, Oxfordshire, and has just two partners and a total of four staff, according to Companies House filings. Of all the companies listed on the FTSE 100 index, just one used an accountancy firm outside of the 'big four' – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – to audit their accounts last year, Financial Reporting Council data show. P&O Ferries, which is owned by the Dubai-based ports and logistics giant DP World, was already months late in filing its financial statements for 2023 when KPMG quit as auditor in March, having worked with the company since 2007. Commenting on its resignation at the time, KPMG said it was 'not possible to complete an audit of the 2023 accounts to the required standard within management's desired timetable'. In a letter outlining its decision, KPMG said it believed it would be unable to audit the accounts in a timely manner as 'some of the drivers of that delay remain'. It comes following a torrid few years for P&O Ferries after it was attacked for sacking almost 800 seafarers via text message and replacing them with cheaper staff. Peter Hebblethwaite, P&O's chief executive, later admitted that he deliberately chose to ignore trade unions during the process, leading Labour to introduce legislation to protect jobs and wages in the maritime sector. Last year, the company's owner DP World clashed with the Government after Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, called it a 'rogue operator'. Sir Keir Starmer disowned Ms Haigh's comments, declaring they were 'not the view of the Government', after DP World pulled out of a Labour-backed investment summit. Jonathan Russell, partner at Just Audit & Assurance said: 'Just because we're a small audit firm, it doesn't mean we'll do an inferior job.' He said he expects to charge lower fees than KPMG, at about £265,000. He said that alongside his four full-time employees, he also has access to 35 freelancers. P&O Ferries and KPMG declined to comment. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
P&O Ferries hires tiny four-person accounting firm to replace KPMG
P&O Ferries has hired a tiny four-person auditing firm to replace the Big Four accountant that resigned from approving its annual accounts in March. The move appears to raise further questions over the governance and financial health of the company, which has attracted a string of negative headlines after its controversial sacking of 786 mainly British ferry workers in 2022 – whom it then replaced with low-cost agency staff from countries including India, the Philippines and Malaysia. The ferry operator's 2022 accounts were almost 11 months late when they were belatedly published in November of last year and showed that the company spent more than £47m on jettisoning its UK seafarers. Its 2023 numbers are now eight months behind schedule and in March KPMG, the UK's fourth largest accounting firm, resigned as P&O Ferries' auditor. In its resignation letter, the accountants said: 'It has not been possible to complete an audit of the 2023 accounts to the required standard within management's desired timetable.' Failure to file company accounts is a criminal offence – albeit one that is rarely punished with anything more than a fine from Companies House. However, critical comments by outgoing auditors are relatively unusual and when a company changes firms it would typically aim to hire a replacement of a similar size. P&O Ferries' new auditor is a firm called Just Audit & Assurance (JAA), which is based in Witney in Oxfordshire and has four employees – while it says it can 'draw upon' 35 people to audit accounts. The fee for the P&O audit will be about £265,000 – the largest it currently charges and accounting for about 8% of revenues, the firm said. In the 2022 accounts, audit fees were shown to have totalled £1.3m. Prem Sikka, a professor of accounting and a Labour peer, said: 'There are some serious questions about auditor independence. A small firm of four staff is auditing a giant conglomerate. The fees from this are likely to form a large part of the firm's income and the concern will be that the fear of losing a major client might influence the audit approach. 'P&O Ferries transports more than 4 million passengers a year and employs thousands of people. The public will want to be reassured that the company did not go opinion-shopping and that it is financially sound.' Jonathan Russell, JAA's majority shareholder and one of the firm's two 'responsible individuals' who are authorised to sign off audit reports, told the Guardian and ITV News: 'You can't buy me because I'm not money oriented. So my opinion is going to be my opinion.' 'I understand the question [about JAA's size],' he added. 'I feel sometimes that the audit is not necessarily now being delivered how it should be … I used [failed construction group] Carillion as an example on a paper I was presenting … as a set of publicly published accounts that didn't make any sense to me. 'So you know, yes, you can have a big name; yes, you can have a small name. Does it mean that the audits are done any better or worse? I don't know. I can tell you now that the average experience in auditing of my staff is over 20 years.' JAA claimed P&O had already informed KPMG that it was being replaced on the 2023 audit when the Big Four firm resigned. KPMG declined to comment. P&O declined invitations by the Guardian and ITV News to comment. JAA added that P&O first approached the firm to audit its accounts last year and that it expects the 2023 accounts to be published by the end of this month.
Telegraph
13-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
P&O Ferries hires four-man firm after accounting fiasco
P&O Ferries has hired a four-person accountancy firm as its auditor after KPMG quit the account abruptly this year. Just Audit & Assurance, which describes itself as 'a specialist firm created to address the specialist needs of the smaller company and charity audits', will audit the ferry operator's accounts, which are overdue. Experts said the decision to appoint such a small auditor raised potential concerns over the financial health and governance standards of P&O Ferries. Atul Shah, a professor of accounting at City St George's, University of London, said: 'This is pure and simple opinion shopping, something which a public interest and regulated profession should strongly and publicly reprimand.' Notably, large corporations almost always use larger and more established firms to audit their accounts owing to the complexity of the work involved and the scale of the work required. Just Audit & Assurance, is based in Witney, Oxfordshire, and has just two partners and a total of four staff, according to Companies House filings. Of all the companies listed on the FTSE 100 index, just one used an accountancy firm outside of the 'big four' – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – to audit their accounts last year, Financial Reporting Council data show. Sacking of seafarers P&O Ferries, which is owned by the Dubai-based ports and logistics giant DP World, was already months late in filing its financial statements for 2023 when KPMG quit as auditor in March, having worked with the company since 2007. Commenting on its resignation at the time, KPMG said it was 'not possible to complete an audit of the 2023 accounts to the required standard within management's desired timetable'. In a letter outlining its decision, KPMG said it believed it would be unable to audit the accounts in a timely manner as 'some of the drivers of that delay remain'. It comes following a torrid few years for P&O Ferries after it was attacked for sacking almost 800 seafarers via text message and replacing them with cheaper staff. Peter Hebblethwaite, P&O's chief executive, later admitted that he deliberately chose to ignore trade unions during the process, leading Labour to introduce legislation to protect jobs and wages in the maritime sector. 'Rogue operator' Last year, the company's owner DP World clashed with the Government after Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, called it a 'rogue operator'. Sir Keir Starmer disowned Ms Haigh's comments, declaring they were 'not the view of the Government', after DP World pulled out of a Labour-backed investment summit. Jonathan Russell, partner at Audit & Assurance said: 'Just because we're a small audit firm, it doesn't mean we'll do an inferior job.' He said he expects to charge lower fees than KPMG, at about £265,000. He said that alongside his four full-time employees, he also has access to 35 freelancers.
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
P&O Ferries hires tiny four-person accounting firm to replace KPMG
P&O Ferries has hired a tiny four-person auditing firm to replace the Big Four accountant that resigned from approving its annual accounts in March. The move appears to raise further questions over the governance and financial health of the company, which has attracted a string of negative headlines after its controversial sacking of 786 mainly British ferry workers in 2022 – who it then replaced with low-cost agency staff from countries including India, the Philippines and Malaysia. The ferry operator's 2022 accounts were almost 11 months late when they were belatedly published in November of last year and showed that the company spent more than £47m on jettisoning its UK seafarers. Its 2023 numbers are now eight months behind schedule and in March KPMG, the UK's fourth largest accounting firm, resigned as P&O Ferries' auditor. In its resignation letter, the accountants said: 'It has not been possible to complete an audit of the 2023 accounts to the required standard within management's desired timetable.' Failure to file company accounts is a criminal offence – albeit one that it rarely punished with anything more than a fine from Companies House. However, critical comments by outgoing auditors are relatively unusual and when a company changes firms it would typically aim to hire a replacement of a similar size. P&O Ferries' new auditor is a firm called Just Audit & Assurance, which is based in Witney in Oxfordshire and has four employees – while it says it can 'draw upon' 35 people to audit accounts. The fee for the P&O audit will be about £265,000 – the largest it currently charges and accounting for about 8% of revenues, the firm said. In the 2022 accounts, audit fees were shown to have totalled £1.3m. Prem Sikka, a professor of accounting and a Labour peer, said: 'There are some serious questions about auditor independence. A small firm of four staff is auditing a giant conglomerate. The fees from this are likely to form a large part of the firm's income and the concern will be that the fear of losing a major client might influence the audit approach. 'P&O Ferries transports more than 4 million passengers a year and employs thousands of people. The public will want to be reassured that the company did not go opinion-shopping and that it is financially sound.' Jonathan Russell, Just Audit's majority shareholder and one of the firm's two 'responsible individuals' who are authorised to sign off audit reports, told the Guardian and ITV News: 'You can't buy me because I'm not money oriented. So my opinion is going to be my opinion.' 'I understand the question [about Just Audit's size],' he added. 'I feel sometimes that the audit is not necessarily now being delivered how it should be … I used [failed construction group] Carillion as an example on a paper I was presenting … as a set of publicly published accounts that didn't make any sense to me. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion 'So you know, yes, you can have a big name, yes, you can have a small name. Does it mean that the audits done any better or worse? I don't know. I can tell you now that the average experience in auditing of my staff is over 20 years.' Just Audit & Assurance claimed P&O had already informed KPMG that it was being replaced on the 2023 audit when the Big Four firm resigned. KPMG declined to comment. P&O declined invitations by the Guardian and ITV News to comment. Just Audit added that P&O first approached the firm to audit its accounts last year and that it expects the 2023 accounts to be published by the end of this month.
