At the inaugural Investment Management Association (IMA) Auditor Reporting Awards, held in November 2014, we were named the FTSE small cap and AIM ‘Innovative’ award winner for our audit report of Petropavlovsk Plc. At the time the audit report was published, Petropavlovsk was in the process of a financial restructuring. This involved the company redeeming outstanding bonds as well as issuing new bonds and new equity. While the financial restructuring was ultimately successful, it was still in its early stages at the time of signing the audit report on the 2013 financial statements. This added to the complexity of our audit.

We were congratulated by the IMA on the manner in which we dealt with the risk associated with ‘going concern’* for Petropavlovsk in the audit report. We balanced the requirement in auditing standards to include this as an Emphasis of Matter paragraph (EMP) in the audit report, as well as a key risk. The EMP highlights to investors a risk or disclosure that may have a serious impact on the company and its financial results. We linked the matters together, which ensured any reader of the audit report could fully understand the risk and how it was being managed. As a result, the audit report and financial statements told a full story, ensuring that investors and the capital markets had a clear risk picture of the company.