Новый гендиректор Italtile заявил, что выход с австралийского рынка был запланирован до раскрытия фальсификации отчетности

Italtile’s newly appointed CEO Brandon Wood says the decision to exit the Australian market was taken before the group uncovered accounting manipulation at its tile business, National Ceramic Industries Australia (Ceramic Australia). His comment comes after the group confirmed on Monday in its results for the 2026 financial year to end-June that a forensic investigation had found “intentional manipulation of results” by an unnamed person responsible for the Ceramic Australia accounts, resulting in a negative impact of A$7.6m. Wood told Business Day that the decision to leave Australia was unrelated to the manipulation. “We had actually made the decision to exit the country before any of these irregularities were picked up, given the noncore nature of the business,” he said. According to the results, Italtile provided A$4.5m in cash support to Ceramic Australia during the year in addition to the $A7.6m adjustment, citing the business’ capital expenditure on a new rectification line and its weak performance. Italtile is now in advanced discussions with a prospective buyer, with due diligence under way. Wood did not disclose a price range, saying only that the sale would be at a value that makes sense for the group and its shareholders. According to Wood, Ceramic Australia has remained profitable even considering the costs linked to the manipulation. He said the business had required a capital injection to complete its rectification plant, rather than being in financial distress. Asked about oversight failures that allowed the manipulation to go undetected, Wood said Australia had been managed with more autonomy than the group’s other foreign operations. Italtile’s African businesses have accounting functions that run partly through South Africa, with internal audits applied from a group level, and that this scrutiny had not extended to Australia given its distance and noncore status, he said. Wood confirmed that the individual responsible for the manipulation no longer works for the group but said the investigations found no evidence of theft or asset misappropriation. “Italtile pursued all available avenues for recourse; however, in the absence of misappropriation, recovery was limited to the personal resources of the individual involved,” Italtile said. The fraud disclosure lands alongside a wider reshuffle at board and executive level. Lance Foxcroft resigned as CEO for family reasons, having spent three years with his family based in Australia. Founder and nonexecutive director Giovanni Ravazzotti is recuperating due to health reasons, while Jan Potgieter and Brand Pretorius also resigned. According to Wood, these changes were planned. “There is no real shakeup here,” he said, adding that Italtile’s leadership remains stable. Shares in the company dropped by almost 3% during afternoon trade as investors reacted to the fall in profits. Italtile reported a 10% drop in trading profit while net cash fell 21% to R1.7bn. Yet, the group declared a special dividend of 25c per share. Wood said the drop in cash mainly reflected the large special dividend paid in the previous year and that underlying cash generation remained strong. He said the business continues to generate more cash than it needs for operations and capital spending. Business Day