Kraft Heinz to restate nearly 3 years of earnings after investigation
Company also warns it would also miss deadline for filing first quarter results
Kraft Heinz has warned it is restating almost three years worth of financial statements after the US food group uncovered evidence of “misconduct” among employees.
The company, which earlier in the year said it had received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission into accounting in procurement, disclosed on Monday it needed to fix “errors” in previously issued accounts for 2016, 2017 and the first three quarters of 2018.
The misstatements related largely to “timing and recognition of supplier contracts” in procurement, Kraft Heinz said. The company, which has already missed a filing deadline for its 2018 annual report, also said that its SEC filing for the first quarter of 2019 would be delayed.
Kraft Heinz said it had found evidence of “discrepancies” during an internal investigation. While the misstatements were not “quantitatively material”, the group said it was making corrections “due to the qualitative nature of the matters identified in the investigation, including the number of years over which the misconduct occurred and the number of transactions, suppliers, and procurement employees involved”.
Kraft Heinz said it was “taking action to improve our policies and procedures and will continue to strengthen our internal financial controls”.
The findings from the company’s investigation, which was “substantially complete”, did not identify any misconduct by “any member of the senior management team”.
Shares in Kraft Heinz were down 1.8 per cent in pre-market trading.
More to come . . .