Our first rule is to avoid intervention in sale and acquisition operations or mergers where we would face a conflict of interest on grounds of our presence as both auditor and adviser to the buyer, seller, or firms involved in the merger.
Where we audit several firms currently operating in the same sector, or when we are asked to do so, we adhere to the following rules:

•  Preliminary research, when we accept a mandate, on situations that could potentially present a conflict of interest, by scrutinising our client databases and consulting partners in the Mazars organisation and ethical experts;
•  Agreement with the clients concerned, through an exchange of letters, before accepting a new project if it is suspected a conflict of interests may arise;
•  Separation of teams and strict respect of the confidentiality rules.