Just two months after chairman and major shareholder Phil Coussens laid into IBL’s auditor for its conservative approach to residual value leasing, the computing leasing company has replaced Binder Hamlyn with Arthur Andersen. According to IBL, the change has been made so that it can benefit from Arthur Andersen’s international experience in the computing leasing field and it refutes suggestions that it has had any disagreements with Binder Hamlyn. Back in June, however, when IBL announced a second successive set of annual results way below market forecasts (CI No 693), Phil Coussens launched a blistering attack on Binder’s methods claiming that the auditor should have included an extra UKP5m of residuals in the profit figure. As it was, the results showed a UKP1.38m gain from accounting changes, but this was not enough for Coussens and his board. The company says it believes that Arthur Andersen’s interpretation of SSAP 21, the accounting standard covering trading leases and residual valuations is similar to its own.
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