PwC shuts operations in nine African countries

(Reuters) -PwC shut operations in nine Sub-Saharan African countries last month following a strategic review, the Big Four accounting firm said, in response to a media report that said the company exited over a dozen countries to avoid scandals.

PwC, which operates as a global network of locally owned partnerships, has shut operations in the Ivory Coast, Gabon, Cameroon, Madagascar, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Congo Republic, Republic of Guinea and Equatorial Guinea, it said in a statement published on its website on March 31.

The accounting firm directed Reuters to the statement in response to queries on a Financial Times article published earlier in the day that said PwC had exited multiple countries that were deemed too small, risky or unprofitable.

The decision came due to mounting differences with local partners, who said they lost over a third of their business in recent years after pressure from PwC's global executives to drop risky clients, the FT said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The PwC statement did not give a reason for the move.

The FT report, citing a register of PwC entities and local news reports, said PwC had also cut ties with member firms in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Fiji.

PwC has faced an exodus of clientele and layoffs across countries since last year.

PwC's mainland China unit was hit with a $62 million fine and six-month suspension for audit failures related to property developer China Evergrande's $78 billion fraud.

Last month, Britain fined PwC about $6 million in relation to the audit of Wyelands Bank for financial year 2019.

The firm is working with Saudi Arabia and its sovereign wealth fund to mend relations after the kingdom suspended activities between the $925 billion fund's holding company and PwC. ($1 = 0.7531 pounds)

(Reporting by Bipasha Dey, Kanjyik Ghosh and Harshita Meenaktshi in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Mrigank Dhaniwala)