◎ Reporter Xu Wei
In the face of the "starting afresh" of some punished institutions, the severe punishment of supervision seems to be "dispelled".
suffer Jin Tongling Financial fraud affected, and Dahua Certified Public Accountants (special general partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Dahua"), which provided audit services for it, was suspended from engaging in securities service business for 6 months. Before and after that, many listed companies that had terminated their cooperation with Dahua Audit changed to Shenzhen Dahua International Accounting Firm (special general partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Shenzhen Dahua International") and Beijing Dahua International Accounting Firm (special general partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Beijing Dahua International") as audit institutions. It is worth noting that these two "Dahua International" absorbed and merged some teams of Dahua, and even the registered addresses of branch offices overlap.
Listed companies "queue up" to terminate contracts
Under the continuous release of strict supervision signal, well-known accounting firm Dahua was severely punished. On May 14, Dahua was imposed a "qualification penalty" by Shenzhen Stock Exchange, which temporarily refused to accept documents for six months. This was the first intermediary agency "qualification penalty" under the registration system opened by Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Previously, the administrative punishment decision disclosed by Jiangsu Securities Regulatory Bureau on May 13 showed that Dahua was suspended from securities service business for six months and fined more than 40 million yuan.
This is one of the more than 40 fines issued by the regulator to the accounting office this year. In the view of insiders, the punishment of suspending securities business for six months really made Dahua feel "pain". Faced with the business difficulties of Dahua, some accountants chose to change jobs.
New Capital On May 15, it was announced that, in view of the administrative penalty imposed on Dahua and the fact that some of the original audit teams serving the company have now been transferred to Shenzhen Dahua International, the company plans to hire Shenzhen Dahua International as the company's auditor in 2024.
It is a microcosm of the current situation of Dahua to be given up for reappointment by the New National Capital. According to the data of China Insurance Association, as of April 30, Dahua had issued 2023 annual financial statement audit reports for 436 listed companies, ranking third after Tianjian and Lixin in terms of the number of services. In order to maintain the continuity of the audit work, in recent days Friendly Group 、 University education 、 Yidelong More than 50 listed companies, including Dahua, announced that they would cancel cooperation with Dahua's audit institution in 2024, accounting for more than 11%.
According to the analysis of a partner of an accounting firm, the impact of Dahua's punishment will continue to grow. The period from June to August each year is an important period for accounting firms to bid for the audit business of listed companies. However, Dahua, which is in the period of business suspension, cannot participate in the bidding, and some partners and auditors may change jobs, which further reduces the scale of Dahua's audit business.
Mass re employment of "Dahua International"
In addition to the loss of customers of listed companies, what makes the market more concerned is that the accounting firm that took over these customers has nearly the same name as Dahua.
According to incomplete statistics, since this year, among the original Dahua customers, five listed companies, including Xinguodou, have changed their audit institutions to Shenzhen Dahua International in 2024, and four to Beijing Dahua International. The reasons for the change are mostly the same, that is, "the audit team serving the company has joined Shenzhen Dahua International" or "the original audit team has been separated from Dahua International and merged by Beijing Dahua International".
In fact, as early as the 2023 annual report audit process, more than 70 of Dahua's A-share listed company customers have changed their audit institutions. Among them, more than 50 companies of Beijing Dahua International and more than 10 companies of Shenzhen Dahua International were re employed.
According to the official website, Shenzhen Dahua International, formerly known as Shenzhen Tianpeng Certified Public Accountants (General Partnership), was founded on January 12, 2005, and absorbed some business teams from Dahua Shenzhen Branch. Enterprise investigation shows that the registered addresses of Shenzhen Dahua International and Dahua Shenzhen Branch are both "Radio and Television Financial Center, No. 9, Pengcheng 1st Road, Fuxin Community, Lianhua Street, Futian District, Shenzhen", with the difference between 14F and 11A11-14F.
From the time line, on November 17 last year, Jin Tongling, who dragged Dahua into the mire, received the Notice of Administrative Penalty in Advance issued by Jiangsu Securities Regulatory Bureau. Dahua was punished in mid May this year. Some insiders analyzed that after Jin Tongling was punished, some partners of Dahua might respond in advance, and many teams and businesses were transferred to Dahua International to avoid the impact of subsequent punishment.
"There are many hidden dangers in the change of audit institutions for listed companies, which will lead to the financial information being mastered by different accountants. Generally, listed companies will change their audit institutions only when they have reached the point where it is absolutely necessary to adjust. Changing to a new office with the original audit team is also a choice many listed companies tend to make." An auditor of an accounting firm said.
The punishment mechanism needs to be improved
There are many doubts on the market about the two "Dahua International" that undertake Dahua's business on a large scale.
Some insiders believe that the use of "Dahua" as the name, teams and customers "move" in batches, which to some extent weakens the disciplinary strength of relevant administrative penalties, reduces the regulatory deterrent, and is not conducive to the steady development of the industry.
The new "National Ninth Article" emphasizes that we should strictly investigate illegal issues such as fraudulent issuance, and seriously punish illegal acts in key areas such as financial fraud and capital occupation; Further compact the primary responsibility of the issuer and the "gatekeeper" responsibility of intermediary agencies, and establish a "blacklist" system for intermediary agencies. By increasing the punishment on institutions, the supervision force institutions to improve the quality of practice and better find out the violations of laws and regulations of relevant companies.
"The regulators are usually cautious about punishing large accounting firms, and it is rare that accounting firms with a high market share, such as Dahua, are suspended from engaging in securities business," said an insider.
However, another industry person said: "Only when the punishment is in place can we know the 'pain', and only when the 'pain' is in place can we really dare to do it next time. If the partners and the team leave, the punishment is a shell, which is difficult to really play the role of warning."
In this regard, some partners of an accounting firm said that if some partners have problems, it is worth discussing whether other partners without fault should "pay" for them. "Employees also need to eat, so everyone has to find their own way out."
Behind this attitude, it seems that industry insiders have become accustomed to such changes in the industry: from Ruihua to Zhengzhong Pearl River, the story of accountants continuing to practice after heavy regulatory penalties is not new.
In the view of the industry, such a punishment mechanism is difficult to improve. One interviewee suggested that we should further improve the management of CPA transfer, implement cross departmental collaboration, and plug regulatory loopholes. "When a major event occurs in an accounting firm, the matter of transfer should be focused on, so that offenders can not change to another accounting firm to re practice. In this way, accountants' rational choice is to choose birds and trees to live in, and choose people with the same aspirations to work together." The interviewee said.
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