Del Monte Pacific Ltd. (DMPL) is asking the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) to lift the suspension of trading of its shares despite the audit disclaimer of Ernst & Young for its annual report.

“The audit disclaimer pertains only to discontinued operations of the US [United States] business for FY [fiscal year] 2025 ending April 30, 2025, which was then deconsolidated from the company’s financial accounts effective May 1, 2025,” said DMPL Corporate Secretary Antonio Eugenuio S. Ungson.

He added that, “The consolidated financial statements of the continuing operations are unaffected and remain reliable” and “the company had already fully impaired its investment and other assets in and relating to DMFHL,” referring to the US subsidiary Del Monte Foods Holdings Ltd.

Also, in support of its request for the lifting of trading suspension, the firm said it has fully disclosed residual risks.

Unson also pointed out that, “While an audit disclaimer in the audited financials would constitute automatic ground for the PSE to suspend the trading of an issuer’s shares, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) does not have a similar policy” so its shares continue to be traded there.

The PSE had initially suspended the trading of DMPL shares, for the company’s failure to file its annual report for the FY ending April 2025, by the Sept. 15 deadline. However, the suspension is now due to the audit report on the company’s FY 2025 annual report having an audit disclaimer.

“Such disclaimer pertains to the carrying values of the assets and liabilities of our US subsidiary group, DMFHL, [whose] assets had been classified as ‘assets held for disposal’ and presented as ‘discontinued operations,’” said Unson.

The disclaimer arose from the auditor’s inability to obtain sufficient evidence on the recoverable values of these assets and related liabilities due to the ongoing US Chapter 11 process.

Ernst & Young said, “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.”

It said 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 that “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.”