Elsevier accused of rules breach

REED Elsevier shares became the latest victim of alleged improper accounting practices today after Dutch corporate governance group SOBI (Foundation for the Investigation of Corporate Investigation) launched a court summons claiming it had broken Dutch accounting rules.

The shares dipped to 530p before recovering to end ahead 4p at 560p. The company said it was studying the writ and stood by its accounts, which had been drawn up with auditors Deloitte & Touche.

SOBI, which owns five Reed shares, said it had three objections to the way in which Reed had treated goodwill in its 2001 accounts. It said that it was not acting on behalf of any other shareholders.

Reed bought one of the US's largest educational publishers Harcourt for $5.6bn (£3.7bn) in July 2001. Chief executive Crispin Davis has led the recovery of the international publisher since his arrival in 1999 and is tied into a lucrative share option scheme.