Peter Connell suspended from MJ Hudson.

The chief financial officer at MJ Hudson has been suspended, with the finance advisory company warning that it may have uncovered fresh discrepancies in the audit of its accounts.

Trading in MJ Hudson shares was also suspended yesterday and the company has appointed an external firm of accountants to review historical issues that mean the full-year audit will not be finished on time.
Peter Connell, 61, announced on November 1 that he was stepping down as a director of the group, which provides advisory and data services to the asset management industry, but would stay on to smooth the transition of a successor as finance chief.
Two weeks before, on October 17, Hudson had announced that it was unlikely to meet an upbeat profit forecast made in July and repeated in August, when the company tapped shareholders for more money in a fundraising.
The statement continued: «The company also announces that Peter Connell, who stood down as a director of the company on October 31, has been suspended. The board has appointed an external accounting and financial services firm to assist them in achieving the necessary clarity to enable the year end FY 2022 reporting to be completed. The board no longer believes that the company’s audit will be complete before the end of December 2022».
Connell has been with Hudson since it was started from one office in 2010 by Matthew Hudson, a well-known City figure and former partner at SJ Brewin. The company has 400 people in ten locations, with more than 1,000 clients. It provides back-office functions to the asset management sector, such as data services, analysis and advice on the growing area of environmental, social and governance concerns.
However, a spokeman said there would be a further announcement «as soon as the company is in a position to do so». Hudson would not disclose the name of the firm appointed yesterday to carry out further work on the accounts.
Other big Hudson shareholders include Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management, Axa and Crux Asset Management.

www.sba.tax

Comments

Cloud Bookkeeping

US FED rate rise.

The US Federal Reserve officials have indicated that they plan to resume increasing interest rates to control inflation in the world's biggest economy. During the June meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee reached a consensus to keep interest rates stable for the time being to evaluate whether further tightening of policy would be necessary. However, the majority of the committee anticipates that additional rate increases will be required in the future. The minutes of the meeting have recently been made public. According to the minutes, most participants believed maintaining the federal funds rate at 5 to 5.25 per cent was appropriate or acceptable, despite some individuals wanting to raise the acceleration due to slow progress in cooling inflation. Although Fed forecasts predicted a mild recession starting later in the year, policymakers faced challenges in interpreting data that showed a tight job market and only slight improvements in inflation. Additionally, officials gr...

EU business slide.

S&P Global’s flash eurozone composite purchasing managers’ index, a key gauge of business conditions for the manufacturing and services sector, fell 1 point to 47.1, figures showed yesterday. That is its lowest level since November 2020 and the fourth consecutive month below the crucial 50 mark separating growth from contraction. One of the few bright spots in the survey was that companies in all sectors reported a slight easing of cost pressures, price growth and supply chain constraints. However, prices charged for goods and services still rose at the sixth fastest rate since such data started in 2002. Jobs growth increased marginally from October but remained low compared with the past 18 months. Following a few months of falling price pressure in manufacturing and services, the October print shows an overall stabilisation said Jens Eisenschmidt, chief European economist at Morgan Stanley. However, German businesses, at the hub of Europe’s energy crisis, reported that manu...

Tariffs on UK electric cars.

The European Commission has confirmed that it will continue with its plan to impose tariffs on electric cars exported between the UK and EU starting next year. This is due to the "rules of origin" requirement that mandates EVs traded across the English Channel to have 60% of their battery and 45% of their parts sourced from the EU or UK or face a 10% tariff. A senior Commission official, Richard Szostak, recently informed parliamentarians from the UK and EU that the bloc's battery investment has significantly declined, making the tariffs necessary to encourage domestic production. In 2022, the EU's share of global investment in battery production shrank from 41% to only 2% after the US offered substantial subsidies through its Inflation Reduction Act. Starting in 2024, car manufacturers in the UK will need to have 22% of their sales come from zero-emission vehicles, which means they may need to import EVs from the continent to meet this requirement. If EU carmakers ...

Search This Blog