PwC resigns as Oceana’s auditors

GLOBAL auditing firm PwC has resigned as the external auditor of Oceana Group Limited, citing a strained relationship with the company’s board of directors.

Oceana owns the popular canned fish brand Lucky Star, and sells fishmeal, fish oil and fish internationally.

At the previous annual general meeting, shareholders of Oceana voted against retaining PwC as the group’s auditors.

Shareholders were meant to be consulted on a replacement auditing firm on Monday, however, they announced that PwC had already resigned.

“Shareholders are now advised that late afternoon, Friday 27 May 2022, PwC resigned as auditors of the group with immediate effect in respect of the audit of the financial year ending September 2022, due to their assessment of significant doubt as to whether there was objective and transparent communication between the board and PwC, given the strained relationship, which they assert constituted a significant impairment of their independence,” Oceana said in a statement.

Oceana further stated: “The board supports the principle of mandatory audit firm rotation and recognises the importance of appointing competent and independently minded auditors.

“To this end, and as a contingency to the outcome of the shareholder consultation process, the board had already begun a process to identify a potential alternative to PwC.”

The company went on to say that discussions with one of the ‘Big Four’ auditing firms have been progressed and the company is confident it would be able to appoint new auditors within the required 40 business days, subject to regulatory requirements. – IOL News