Dutch retailer Ahold revealed further book-keeping irregularities today as one of Europe's biggest corporate accounting scandals widened, saying it needs more time to complete its investigations.
The company, which this year uncovered an $880 million accounting hole at its US Foodservice arm, has now unearthed "intentional accounting irregularities" at US retail unit Tops Markets and other unspecified subsidiaries.
The world's third-largest retailer said probes of most of its operations were now substantially complete and investigations of three entities - including Spanish companies and the corporate headquarters - should end within two weeks.
Lending banks gave it two more weeks to finalise the 2002 results. Ahold shares, which have slid by a third since the scandal broke in February, were down one percent at by 2.05 p.m. (Irish Time), underperforming a slightly easier DJ Stoxx European retail index . The stock earlier fell as much as 3.4 percent.
Tops operates 370 supermarkets, superstores and convenience stores serving New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The company, which just 10 days ago still said it would meet a June 30th deadline for finishing its 2002 accounts, said its banks had extended this important deadline to August 15th.
Ahold said it plans to publish these 2002 results "within weeks" after delivering consolidated results to its banks.