Bronze in mire over accounts

Wednesday 15 August 2012 04:59 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Black cabs fell into black holes today as Manganese Bronze — maker of the iconic London taxi — said it found accounting errors going back more than two years.

Days after the Spice Girls wowed the Olympic closing ceremony audience from the top of brighly lit London cabs, the firm also warned that first-half losses will be "substantially higher" than last year's.

Manganese shares crashed by a third, falling to their lowest level for more than decade. The company said the accounting errors meant it had overstated its profits by £3.9m — the equivalent of the on-the-road price of about 120 TX4 cabs.

It said the errors happened when it introduced a new IT system in August 2010 and transfers from the old system overstated some stocks and understated some liabilities. Manganese said that although first-half losses would be much higher than last year's £905,000, it expects sales to pick up in the second half but could not say whether that meant it would hit City expectations.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in