Land Securities, the property giant which is redeveloping London’s Victoria, has parted company with its auditor for the first time since the group was formed 69 years ago in 1944.
Without any pre-announcement it was doing so, Land Securities said that after an unpublicised competitive tender process led by chairman Alison Carnwath it had appointed Ernst & Young as its auditor immediately and that PricewaterhouseCoopers had resigned yesterday.
This is the first high-profile change of auditor by a FTSE 100 company since the Competition Commission rapped the big four accountants for not doing a good enough job. It found almost a third of top 100 companies had not changed auditors for over 20 years.
Martin Greenslade, chief financial officer of Land Securities, said: “We chose Ernst & Young as our auditors not least because their specialist property practice can provide a global perspective on the property sector. I’d like to thank PwC for their highly professional service over many years.”
PwC earned fees totalling £800,000 from LandSecs last year.
