Audit Risks Of Continuous Mergers And Acquisitions Of Listed Companies And Their Responses

In recent years,China’s market economy has developed rapidly,and commercial competition has become more and more stimulated.For listed companies,under the severe competitive pressure of the capital market,through frequent mergers and acquisitions activities can harvest human resources,technical resources and market resources in a short period of time,so as to achieve their own rapid development,which also highlights the advantages of the continuous M&A development model,although continuous M&A is a special form of M&A transactions,but it is essentially not an independent M&A transaction event again and again,but reflects a strategic layout of listed companies,and contains a series of potential risks behind it.Based on the theory of information asymmetry,when a certified public accountant audits a listed company that conducts continuous M&A business within a certain number of years,the first thing it faces is a complex transaction process and multiple acquired enterprises,and the certified public accountant should not only analyze the current financial status and operation of the main M&A company,but also fully study the resource integration after each M&A transaction to identify the risks of continuous M&A audit,the most important of which is the risk of material misstatement at the financial statement level.Secondly,continuous M&A transactions have certain linkage and complexity,and involve many objects,and the causes of continuous M&A risks should also be analyzed,so as to effectively reduce the probability of audit failure and help certified public accountants to issue appropriate audit opinions.This article takes the eight consecutive M&A events of ST Star since its listing in 2011 from 2013 to 2020 as case studies to identify the audit risks of continuous M&A and analyze the motivation of continuous M&A.By reviewing and splitting the entire continuous M&A process of the case company,this paper focuses on the risk points existing in the annual and subsequent annual report audits of continuous M&A,and analyzes the causes of continuous M&A audit risks from the perspective of material misstatement risk and inspection risk based on modern risk-oriented audit theory.It is found that the case company,as the main acquirer,has greater audit risks in the M&A environment,management integrity management philosophy,enterprise value evaluation,performance commitment and resource integration.Finally,this paper further analyzes the problems existing in the audit risk of continuous mergers and acquisitions,and puts forward corresponding risk prevention suggestions,hoping that the research of this paper can be helpful to the development of practical work.At present,there is no clear method guidance for the theory and system of continuous M&A audit risk in China.Therefore,this paper highlights that in the entire continuous M&A audit process,auditors should conduct a comprehensive and objective analysis of the M&A audit risks on the basis of maintaining independence,and put forward targeted corresponding measures,so as to be helpful to the current audit work and provide effective suggestions for the development of the audit work.