Y Ventures appoints Deloitte to independently review internal control lapses

Y VENTURES has appointed Deloitte & Touche Enterprise Risk Services as an independent reviewer to assess lapses in its internal controls and the impact of adjustments to prior years' financial statements, the e-commerce firm announced late Tuesday night.

The scope of the independent review will include scrutinising the "adequacy and effectiveness" of the group's internal controls for the financial period starting from Jan 1, 2014 to Dec 31, 2018. Deloitte will also specify any misstatements in the group's prior years' financial statements as disclosed in the company's initial public offering documents and to-date as a result of internal control lapses, the filing said.

Among other things, the review will also include investigating the circumstances and responsible parties involved in the internal control lapses and misstatements, as well as any possible breaches of the listing rules, and either or both of the Companies Act and the Securities and Futures Act, the filing noted.

The appointment of the independent reviewer was made in consultation with Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) and the Catalist-listed company's sponsor, RHT Capital. It follows a series of queries by SGX RegCo into accounting mistakes that Y Ventures announced on Jan 21. Those restatements led the company to restate its half-year financials for the six months ended June 30, 2018, to a net loss of US$977,556 from a previously reported net profit of US$131,186.

On Feb 28, Y Ventures said that its unaudited full-year 2018 loss widened to US$3.6 million from an audited 2017 loss of US$787,433.

Y Ventures shares were trading unchanged at 6.7 Singapore cents as at 9.23am on Wednesday after the announcement.