31st Jan 2020 10:07
(Alliance News) - Shares in M&C Saatchi PLC's shares fell on Friday as the advertising firm confirmed a regulatory investigation into its accounting.
The stock was 8.6% lower on Friday morning in London at a price of 101.00 pence each.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority has begun an investigation into M&C Saatchi following previously announced accounting issues, which led to a forensic review commissioned by the firm
M&C Saatchi confirmed it will "cooperate fully" with the FCA investigation.
The company in August warned of accounting errors which led to the internal review. In December, it said it would be booking a GBP11.6 million charge based on the findings of the review.
At the same time, M&C Saatchi warned on profit for 2019 after trading at the end of the year was weaker than expected. It saw underlying pretax profit falling 22% to 27% on 2018 - no underlying figure was reported in 2018, but pretax profit was GBP17.6 million.
This profit guidance was backed in December, but the company did say its cash position at the end of December was expected to be better than forecast.
By George Collard; [email protected]
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