審計師大幅增加對香港上市公司財務警告

Auditors have sharply increased their warnings over the financial health of Hong Kong companies at time when investors fear the repercussions of China’s slowing economy.

審計師大幅增加了對香港公司財務健康狀況的警告，目前投資者正擔憂中國經濟放緩的影響。

The data, complied from a Financial Times analysis of stock exchange filings, reveals that auditors are increasingly citing fears about whether the companies in question are going concerns.

英國《金融時報》根據對證交所申報文件的分析整理的數據顯示，越來越多的審計師對相關公司能否持續經營感到擔憂。

A total of 149 companies have so far this year reported modified opinions for their financial accounts — as many as for all of 2014. Of those, 27 listed on the main board of the Hong Kong exchange carried “disclaimers”, where auditors sidestep giving a definitive opinion.

今年迄今，共有149家公司的審計師報告對公司財務報表的看法有變，與2014年全年一樣多。其中，27家在香港主板市場上市的公司的審計師提出“免責聲明”，表明審計師不願發表明確觀點。

Disclaimers are the second-most serious grade of qualified audit opinion, and mean that the auditor is worried that there are issues facing the company that could be both material and pervasive to its finances. The only worse outcome is an adverse opinion, which indicates outright disagreement between auditor and company.

免責聲明屬於第二嚴重等級的有保留審計意見，表明審計師擔心這些公司面臨可能對其財務狀況有實質性且全面影響的問題。最糟糕的結果是負面意見，這表明審計師的意見與公司完全相反。

Excluding companies listed on Hong Kong’s Growth Enterprise Market, which are considered riskier than main board groups, auditors for 17 companies have so far this year cited fears over whether their client was a going concern — up from eight last year.

除去在香港創業板(Growth Enterprise Market)上市的企業（它們被視爲比香港主板上市公司風險更高），今年迄今，有17家公司的審計師就其客戶是否會持續經營提出擔憂，高於去年的8家。

“There appears to be increasing concern on the part of auditors about the quality of financial reporting,” said Jamie Allen, secretary-general of the Asian Corporate Governance Association, which publishes a biennial barometer of governance in the region.

亞洲公司治理協會(Asian Corporate Governance Association)祕書長艾哲明(Jamie Allen)表示：“審計師似乎越來越擔心財務報告質量。”該協會每兩年公佈一份有關亞洲治理狀況的報告。

He added that Hong Kong reporting quality varied widely. “Some firms are close to international best practice and produce highly informative reports, mostly some blue-chips, while others continue to mislead or under-disclose.”

他補充稱，香港財報質量差異很大。“一些公司接近全球最佳實踐，財報內容非常翔實，這些主要是藍籌股，而其他公司則繼續誤導投資者或披露信息不足。”