The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has opened an investigation into the auditors of ISG, MacIntyre Hudson LLP
ISG went into administration in September 2024, with debts of around £1.1bn. Accounts for 2023 were overdue and have never been published, but were expected to show £148m in contract write downs and a £133m pre-tax loss. At the time of collapse, ISG owed over £308m to trade contractors.
The investigation will examine ISG’s financial statements for 2022
The FRC’s conduct committee decided to investigate the audit conducted by Macintyre Hudson, otherwise known as MHA, on 21 January 2025 but the decision was only announced on 18 March.
The financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022 were the last submitted by ISG before collapse.
The FRC declined to comment further
“The investigation does not relate to any persons or entities other than the relevant statutory auditor(s) and/or statutory audit firm(s) and it would not be fair to treat any part of this announcement as constituting or evidencing an investigation into any other persons or entities,” the FRC said.
The investigation will be conducted by the FRC’s Enforcement Division under the Audit Enforcement Procedure.
This is the second announced FRC investigation into MHA’s auditing
Last year the FRC announced it was examining MHA’s auditing work on an unidentified company’s 2022 accounts. In a separate case, the FRC also fined MHA £120,250 for “numerous breaches” in audits of MRG Finance’s 2018 and 2019 accounts.
A MHA spokesperson, commented on the ISG investigation saying that: “MHA is committed to audit quality and we will be co-operating fully with the FRC as part of this investigation.”
