Most de-mergers are successful. South 32. Bluescope. Coles will be. Because fundamentally they are sound businesses.
The potential de-merger of Sterling shouldn't make the audit harder. Audits look predominantly at what has already happened historically - not much emphasis on what might happen in the future. Remember we've never seen any Financial Statements. Not 2016. Not 2017. Not 2018.
There are three usual reasons why Financial Statements get chronically delayed: 1. The Company is disorganised and can't get the books and records into an auditable state, 2. The Company is so complicated and interdependent on other things that the Auditors can't get their head around it, or 3. The Audited Financial Statements don't paint the picture that the Company / Board wants to promote.
None of these 3 are a trait of a fundamentally sound business.
In the absence of a General Meeting, I'm tempted to fly over to Perth and just appear at Sterling's reception with a list of questions.
