Muppets TV group reveals it has no FD
German media group EMTV, still reeling after having to correct its half-year results this week, has revealed it does not have a full-time finance director.
Following the accounting errors, the group is understood to be looking to appoint a full-time FD in a bid to prevent a repeat of the error which lead to its shares crashing 30%, wiping £1.8bn off its value.
Until now, chief operating officer Florian Hassa has been splitting his time between the two roles despite the group having to report its results under three accounting standards. The group rocketed from an unknown rights trading business into an international media company this year following the acquisitions of the company owned by Muppets founder Jim Henson and SLEC, which owned the rights to Formula One.
However it had not expanded its finance department to match its growth – a fact reminiscent of the dot.com crashes including boo.com, which only had an FD for four months of its total existence.
PricewaterhouseCoopers has been brought in to help the group work through the Jim Henson and Formula One accounts, which are drawn up under US and UK accounting standards respectively. EMTV reports under international accounting standards.
Links
Interview: BBC finance director