KEW MEDIA GROUP INC. (“KEW” or the “Company”) (TSX:KEW and KEW.WT) today announced that its auditor, Grant Thornton LLP (“Grant Thornton”), has notified the Company that it has withdrawn the following reports: (i) its audit report dated April 2, 2018 on the Company’s consolidated financial statements as at and for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016; (ii) its audit report dated April 1, 2019 on the Company’s consolidated financial statements as at and for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017; and (iii) its interim review reports to the audit committee of the Company for each interim period within the 2017, 2018 and 2019 fiscal years of Kew (collectively, the “Grant Thornton Reports”), and therefore, the Grant Thornton Reports should no longer be relied upon. Grant Thornton has informed the Company that the withdrawal is a result of the actions of KEW’s former Chief Financial Officer and its inability to rely on representations he made to Grant Thornton in the course of its audits and review of KEW’s financial statements.
KEW’s board of directors has formed a second special committee of independent directors to investigate the actions of KEW’s former Chief Financial Officer (in December 2019, the Company announced the formation of a Special Committee to examine strategic alternatives). The committee’s mandate includes an investigation of the extent to which working capital and the other financial information of the Company was misreported to the Company and its senior lenders and whether the Company’s historical financial statements were impacted by such inaccurate information and require any amendment or restatement.
As a result of the withdrawal of the Grant Thornton Reports and the time expected to complete the investigation, KEW expects that it will not be able to meet the filing deadline for its financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019.
About KEW MEDIA GROUP INC.
With primary offices in London, Los Angeles, and Toronto, KEW MEDIA GROUP is a publicly listed content company that produces and distributes multi-genre content for almost every available viewing platform worldwide. KEW promotes transparency, equality, respect, and inclusiveness and plans to grow with the benefit of people from a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may include forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions and are identified by words such as “will”, “expects”, “anticipates”, “intends”, “plans”, “believes”, “estimates” or similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. In particular, statements relating to the investigation being conducted by the Investigation Committee and Kew’s expectations regarding the filing of its 2019 annual financial statements constitute forward-looking statements. All such statements constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of securities law and are made pursuant to the “safe harbour” provisions of applicable securities laws. Such statements are based on current expectations of the Company’s management and inherently involve numerous risks and uncertainties, known and unknown, and there can be no assurance as to the outcome of the investigations being conducted by the Investigations Committee or the timing for the filing of Kew’s 2019 annual financial statements. Except as may be expressly required by applicable law, KEW does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or revise any such forward-looking statements, and as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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