The London Stock Exchange has disputed findings in a research report released by Deloitte, raising concerns about the financial strength of foreign companies issuing global depositary receipts in the UK. The LSE claim the study contains a number of inaccuracies and misleading statements.

The Deloitte study noted a third of overseas firms issuing GDRs in London last year, admitted to having weak financial controls, although ‘there is a worryingly common misconception that GDRs are governed in the same manner as the primary listings’, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The LSE said GDRs traded on its main market were obliged to follow the rules for EU-regulated markets, which included compliance with the transparency directive by producing half-yearly audited financial reports.

An LSE spokesman said the facts were ‘quite straightforward’. ‘The Financial Services Authority requires full disclosure of all major risk factors in the prospectuses of GDR issuers as in the case of any other issuer,’ he said.

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Read the story in The Daily Telegraph