Deloitte quits as auditor of Barclay family’s Very Group

Deloitte has resigned as auditor of Very Group, the online retail business, adding to concerns about the Barclay family’s business empire. Deloitte’s departure follows an announcement by the UK’s culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, that she was minded to open an in-depth inquiry into the Barclays’ sale of the Telegraph to the Abu-Dhabi-backed investment vehicle RedBird IMI. RedBird had positioned itself to take control of the Telegraph by loaning the Barclays £600 million against the title. It then provided another £600 million to refinance family assets, including Very. Deloitte, which has audited the former Littlewoods catalogue business for 11 years, said it resigned after struggling to access “appropriate and relevant information in respect of certain financing arrangements between companies in the wider group”. Very Group is a web of different companies, and Deloitte said some of them were “either not audited by the same audit firm or are unaudited”. Very said all necessary information had been provided. According to the Telegraph, which has covered the story of its own sale in minute detail, the group’s debts total £2.5 billion.