The number of corporations that received an ‘appropriate’ audit opinion on their financial statements last year was counted at 2,615, similar to 2,537 in the previous year. The number of corporations that received an ‘appropriate’ internal accounting audit opinion was 1,582, showing slight improvement compared to the previous year (1,544). However, even if an ‘appropriate’ audit opinion is received, there may be comments on ‘uncertainty about going concern’, so investors need to carefully examine the details.
The Financial Supervisory Service noted on the 18th that the ratio of domestic listed corporations that received an ‘appropriate’ audit opinion on their financial statements was 97.5% last year.
By market, the ratio was relatively high at 98% in the securities market and 97.7% in the KOSDAQ market. However, in the KONEX market, only 92.5% received an appropriate opinion.
By corporation size, 100% received an appropriate opinion for those with assets of over 2 trillion won, while only 95.4% received an appropriate opinion for corporations with less than 100 billion won.
Among the corporations that received an ‘appropriate’ opinion in the audit of financial statements, 84 corporations, or 3.2% of the total, were noted by auditors to have ‘significant uncertainty related to going concern’. Uncertainty about going concern means that while the financial statements were prepared appropriately, there exists uncertainty regarding the corporation's ability to continue.
The FSS explained, “Among the 98 listed corporations that received a going concern uncertainty opinion in 2023, 23 corporations (23.5%) faced delisting or received an inappropriate opinion in the next period,” noting that this greatly exceeds the unlisted corporations (2.2%), indicating the need to pay attention to related information.
The number of corporations that received a ‘not appropriate’ opinion in the audit of financial statements was 66, accounting for 2.5% of the total. There were 58 instances of ‘opinion rejection’ and 8 instances of ‘limited opinion’. The main reasons for not being appropriate included uncertainty about going concern, balance of underlying financial statements, and limitations on the audit scope concerning subsidiary and related company investments.
The percentage of corporations that received an ‘appropriate’ opinion in the internal accounting audit was 98%, showing slight improvement compared to the previous year (97.3%). A total of 1,615 corporations were subject to the internal accounting audit, which is a slight increase from the previous year (1,587). However, the number of corporations deemed not appropriate decreased by 10, totaling 33.
The FSS warned, “Even if the audit opinion is appropriate, if the external auditor indicates uncertainty about going concern, there is a high possibility of receiving an inappropriate opinion in the future,” and advised that if the internal accounting audit opinion is not appropriate, there is a risk that future financial statements may be distorted.