WH Smith shares fell drastically by more than a third on Thursday after the firm revealed an accounting error has led to a £30million overstatement of its expected North American profits.
While the error brought the expected profits down to £25million from £55million, the share price reaction wiped £491million off the company's market value, The Telegraph reports.
The corrected North American profits forecast brings WH Smith's expected full-year profits down to around £110million from the previously stated £140million.
The company has attributed the accounting error on “accelerated recognition of supplier income” and chief financial officer Max Izzard has flown out to America to resolve the problem.
Deloitte has also been instructed to carry out an independent review into the incident.
WH Smith's North American businesses is made up of more than 300 airport stores under different names in addition to franchised outlets for brands including Lego and Harley Davidson.
FTSE 100
The UK's flagship share index, the FTSE 100, was up 6-points at 9,294 shortly after opening this morning.
Brent crude oil futures were down 0.11% at $66.73 a barrel.