Watchdog exposes Galliford’s £94m accounting errors

Watchdog exposes Galliford’s £94m accounting errors sending shares crashing 18%

Accounting errors by Galliford Try inflated its net assets by more than £94million.

The construction business’s mistakes were uncovered by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the audit watchdog.

The FRC found Galliford Try overstated its revenues from the Aberdeen bypass project by £80million, which meant pre-tax profits were pumped up in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

Share shock: Accounting errors by Galliford Try inflated its net assets by more than £94m 

Shares in Galliford also plunged 18.4 per cent as half-year results showed it was pushing back its target for a 2 per cent divisional profit margin to 2022. 

The FRC said it uncovered a raft of accounting errors, some dating back to 2015-16, as part of its probe.

‘The total effect of all the errors identified was to overstate net assets by £94.3million at June 30, 2018,’ according to the FRC.

But the watchdog said Galliford had since corrected its mistakes.

David Rule, executive director of supervision at the FRC, said: ‘We will continue to hold companies to account.’

Bill Hocking, chief executive, said this had been ‘a period of significant change’ for the construction company.

 

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