Samjong KPMG Launches 'Listing Maintenance Advisory Center' to Support Companies' Listing Retention Activities

Samjong KPMG announced on the 28th that it has established a "Listing Maintenance Advisory Center" that provides total services including accounting and tax, forensic investigation, financing, and restructuring throughout all stages of delisting review to effectively respond to companies' listing risks.

According to Samjong KPMG, over the past five years, about 40 companies annually in the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets have faced delisting reasons. Among these, companies that proceeded to delisting were found to have failed to meet formal requirements for maintaining listing due to modified audit opinions by external auditors, weak financial structures and capital erosion caused by deteriorating business performance, bankruptcy, or insolvency. They also failed to meet substantive requirements due to embezzlement, breach of trust, accounting violations, insincere disclosures, and frequent changes in management control.

In response, Samjong KPMG opened the Listing Maintenance Advisory Center to resolve delisting risks according to the issues and characteristics of each delisting reason and to advise on all stages of the substantive delisting review, aiming to support companies' listing maintenance activities.

The center is led by Deputy CEO Park Seong-bae of the audit division. It consists of about 30 experts, including industry specialists in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) interpretation and external audits, forensic experts, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) experts for corporate rehabilitation and business normalization, restructuring experts experienced in business and governance restructuring execution and post-management, and tax experts who proactively diagnose tax risks.

The center analyzes issues causing delisting reasons and establishes response strategies. It provides a one-stop service in cooperation with law firms for filing objections against delisting reasons and trading suspensions, as well as preparing improvement plans. Once an improvement period is granted through substantive review of the improvement plan, advisory services are provided according to the delisting reasons, including accounting advisory services dealing with interpretation of accounting standards, forensic investigations for internal control bodies and external auditor responses, business restructuring such as investment attraction, asset sales, corporate rehabilitation procedures, and governance improvements to resolve going concern uncertainties, and preemptive diagnosis of tax issues.

Deputy CEO Park said, "Many companies are struggling to maintain their listings not only due to economic factors such as the global economic downturn but also due to a supervisory environment where management and governance responsibilities for accounting errors and fraudulent incidents are becoming stricter." He added, "The Listing Maintenance Advisory Center will actively support the maintenance of listing eligibility and sound growth of companies with potential through highly specialized knowledge and advisory experience."

Meanwhile, Samjong KPMG has also established a dedicated call center for the Listing Maintenance Advisory Center to provide prompt advisory services.