Proxy adviser ISS recommends against GE keeping auditor KPMG

(Reuters) - Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services on Thursday recommended that shareholders of General Electric Co vote against keeping accounting firm KPMG as the company's auditor because of "concerns about GE's previously undisclosed liabilities and accounting practices."

Another proxy advisory firm, Glass, Lewis & Co, on Tuesday also recommended that GE shareholders vote against the ratification of KMPG as the company's auditor, citing concerns about a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the company's accounting practices.

Both firms provided copies to Reuters of their reports containing the proxy recommendations.

GE in January disclosed that U.S. securities regulators were probing insurance charges including a $6.2 billion charge to increase insurance reserves and $15 billion more in provisions for insurance policies.

 

GE in a report dated March 12 had backed KPMG and said its Audit Committee believed that KPMG is independent and it is in the best interests of GE and its share owners to retain the firm as its independent auditor for 2018.

KPMG declined to comment.

(Reporting by Shubham Kalia, Philip George and Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese and Leslie Adler)