(Reuters) - Britain's Financial Reporting Council (FRC) watchdog has launched a new investigation into how Mitie Group 's (L:MTO) 2015-16 financial statements were prepared and approved, the outsourcing company said on Monday.
Mitie, which has issued a string of profit warnings, also said it was looking to sell its property management business.
Mitie has been hit by rising labour costs after Britain's vote to leave the European Union and costly changes to contracts it took on during the global economic downturn that offered only thin profit margins.
It said the investigation into how Mitie's financial statements for the year to March 31, 2016 was being conducted under the FRC's Accountancy Scheme. Mitie said a separate FRC investigation of its books covering the same year had been concluded and no further action would be taken on it.
Mitie's shares were up 0.3 percent at 1006 GMT after recovering from early losses.
The FRC is also conducting a third investigation, announced in July, in relation to the conduct of Deloitte LLP's [DLTE.UL] audits of two of its annual financial statements.
The company said it understood that the FRC's latest investigation does not relate to any current directors, any former non-executive directors or Sandip Mahajan, who stepped down as Chief Financial Officer last week.
The provider of pest control, cleaning and security services said in September that it may cut up to 480 jobs and warned that the cost of its turnaround would be higher than expected. (nL5N1M10XE)
On Monday it reported a half-year adjusted operating profit of 32.6 million pounds, up 5.8 percent from a year earlier.
Revenue rose 3.9 percent to 959.7 million pounds, but fell short of the 1.1 billion pounds it forecast in September. Its order book at end-September stood at 5.93 billion pounds, up from 5.87 billion a year earlier.