Del Monte Pacific Limited’s external auditor, Ernst & Young LLP of Singapore, has issued a disclaimer of opinion on the group’s financial statements for the fiscal year ending April 2025, primarily due to the valuation of the company’s US assets that are up for sale.

“In view of the significance of the matter referred to in the Basis for Disclaimer of Opinion of our report, we have not been able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion on these financial statements,” the auditor said.

It noted that, “We were engaged to audit the financial statements of Del Monte Pacific Limited and its subsidiaries (collectively, the Group), which comprise the statements of financial position of the Group and the Company as at April 30, 2025.”

This includes the income statements, statements of comprehensive income, statements of changes in equity and statements of cash flows of the Group and the Company for the year then ended, and notes to the financial statements, including material accounting policy information.

It explained that, the conflict arises from the carrying values of assets held for disposal, namely DMPL’s US operations under Del Monte Foods Holdings Limited (DMFHL).

DMPL carries the assets of DMFHL as assets held for disposal, including the liabilities associated with the assets. The Group has assessed the carrying value of the assets held for disposal and recognized impairment losses of $703.4 million in fiscal year 2025.

The Company has applied the equity method for its investments in DMFHL in the financial statements.

However, Ernst & Young said that, “Based on information available to us, we were unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to assess whether the carrying values of the assets held for disposal and liabilities directly associated with assets held for disposal in the consolidated financial statements represents the fair value less costs to sell of the disposal group.”

This is based on the requirements of IFRS 5 Non-current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations.

Thus, it also does not have enough data to gauge the appropriateness of the impairment losses recognized within "Loss from discontinued operations" in the income statement.

“Similarly, we were also unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to assess the appropriateness of the carrying value of the investment in subsidiaries in the Company's statement of financial position and the share in net losses of DMFHL in the Company's income statement,” the auditor added.

Because of these, Ernst & Young said “we were unable to determine whether any adjustments might have been found necessary in respect of the Group and Company's carrying values of the assets and liabilities directly associated with the held for disposal and investment in subsidiaries, respectively, and the elements making up the income statement and disclosures in the notes to the financial statements.”