A reconstituted third-party committee investigating ESPOIR Co.,Ltd. has concluded that one of three real estate consulting transactions the company booked in the final month of the fiscal year ended February 2026 never actually took place, and that a second could not be recognized as revenue in that year at all. The finding pushes the company, which trades on the Nagoya Stock Exchange's Next market under code 3260, into a consolidated capital deficit of ¥108.7mn.
The committee's report, received on September 15, 2026, examined the same three year-end consulting-revenue transactions that had already led ESPOIR's auditor to withhold an opinion on both its financial statements and its internal-control report for the year, a disclaimer the company first disclosed on May 27, 2026, citing insufficient evidentiary documentation for past transactions. An auditor's disclaimer of opinion is a rarer and more serious step than a qualified opinion: it means the auditor could not gather enough evidence to sign off on the accounts at all. The committee's supplied summary does not specify what became of the third transaction under review.
ESPOIR first set up a third-party committee on June 11, 2026, then rebuilt it with a new roster of members on July 10, 2026, after the initial disclaimer landed. The rebuilt panel investigated the transactions' evidentiary basis and reached its findings within roughly two months.
The company says it is still finalizing the exact impact on its consolidated and standalone financial statements, and cautions that the figure could move from the committee's estimated ¥108.7mn negative net worth as that work continues. ESPOIR plans to publish the investigation report itself, with parts redacted to protect personal and confidential information, and apologized to shareholders and other stakeholders for the disruption. No timeline for the final restated figures has been given.