November 21, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] The Korean media has been reporting on and off for about a year now about suspicions that Samsung BioLogics committed accounting fraud of 1.9 trillion won (US$1.77 billion) in 2015. 

On Dec.29, yet another media outlet published similar reports, saying that the company is being investigated on related charges, and that it could be linked to the 2015 merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries. Samsung C&T is the largest shareholder of Samsung BioLogics with a 43.44 percent stake.

It’s true that the Financial Supervisory Service is investigating the matter. The following is the full statement released by Samsung BioLogics.  - Editor - 

On Dec. 29, a local media reported that Samsung BioLogics is under investigation on suspicion of 1.9 trillion won worth of accounting fraud.

The reports said that experts from the top four accounting firms in Korea issued opinions purporting Samsung BioLogics broke accounting rules.

However, the comments by experts are not the official positions of the four companies.

Among the four mentioned, three of them previously presented their official assessment of Samsung BioLogics’ financial records, stating that the books were in order. 

The three accounting firms are: KPMG Samjung, which had been our designated accounting firm from 2012 to 2015; Deloitte Anjin, our external auditor designated by the FSS before our 2016 IPO; PwC Samil, the designated accounting firm for Samsung C&T, which is the parent company of Samsung BioLogics.

In 2016, we also received a clean bill from the Korean Institute of Certified Public Accountants, which was given an official mandate from the FSS.

Given all this, it cannot be true that Samsung BioLogics had committed accounting fraud, nor could it have sought to influence the merger ratio of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries by overstating its profit.

Moreover, Samsung BioLogics has stated several times that the merger of Samsung C&T was completed on Sept. 1, 2015, before our financial data was included in the accounting books in December 2015.

We have also numerously stated that Samsung BioLogics has acted in accordance with laws and accounting procedures at the time.

At this time, Samsung BioLogics will once again cooperate with the FSS on the ongoing audit. We will continue to do our best to enhance shareholder value.