KPMG report this week on Powerscreen

14 April 1998

KPMG report this week on Powerscreen

INTERNATIONAL auditors KPMG are expected to report this week on Powerscreen the troubled Northern Ireland engineering group which owns Matbro tractors.

KPMG will comment on the £46.7 million of unexpected losses run up by the company.

Powerscreen claims the losses came mostly in the first nine months of the year to March in Matbro, a specialist tractor subsidiary. It says it expects the report to support its version of events, but it has also admitted KPMG may have to look wider within the company.

Powerscreen says the losses were accrued through the mispricing of machines, unauthorised discounting and unauthorised cashing, or discounting, of bills of exchange.

It insists the problems were confined to Matbro, but the Financial Times says there is compelling evidence that the problems go wider.

• Financial Times 14/04/98 page 27