AYO Technology Solutions has released a voluntary update to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange News Service and has engaged auditors BDO to start auditing its 2018 interim results, the company said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

On completion, it will release restated audited 2018 interim results "and provide all the necessary disclosure", the statement added.

The company released its restated February 28, 2019 results at the beginning of June.

According to its latest statement, AYO believes its August 2018 audited results will not have to be restated.

"The company reaffirms it is of the opinion that changes highlighted in the review and the Fact Finding, do not affect the August 2018 audited results," the statement said. "[Auditors] BDO [are] also of this belief, confirming that, based upon the information obtained during the Agreed Upon Procedures (AUP) engagement with AYO, their unqualified audit opinion of those annual financial statements will have no requirement to be restated."

'Cooperating fully'

AYO also said it was working with the JSE.

"AYO reiterates that it is co-operating fully with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in addressing matters raised out of both the internal review and the external Fact Finding Report," AYO said.

The JSE had asked AYO to engage with external auditors on an urgent basis in light of evidence given at the PIC Commission of Inquiry, Fin24 earlier reported. The JSE was referring to allegations that former executives were instructed to amend the numbers contained in AYO's unaudited interim results, which it said were of "serious concern".

AYO denied at the time that its filings were amended. However, the reviewed interim financial statement for February 28, 2018 showed that profit after tax decreased.

The IT company, which is linked to Sekunjalo executive chair Iqbal Surve, said upon release of the reviewed statement that the review report ordered by the JSE identified "certain corrections, which require the restatement of the 28 February 2018 interim results".

"AYO can, however, confirm that profit before tax remains flat and that earnings per share and headline earnings per share, increased by approximately two percent," the group said in a statement issued on Monday evening.

"As a result of the re-computation of tax, however, profit after tax decreased."

The IT group received a R4.3bn cash injection from the PIC when it listed on the JSE in December 2017. The investment featured heavily at the PIC commission of inquiry, with allegations that it misrepresented its value when it listed on the JSE, according to evidence heard by the inquiry.