[THE INVESTOR] The financial authorities and Samsung BioLogics on May 17 held their first session reviewing a regulatory probe into the biotechnology firm over suspected accounting breaches, officials said.

The biotech arm of Samsung Electronics has lost nearly a third of its market capitalization since financial authorities notified the company of an accounting violation on May 1. Samsung Biologics has strongly denied it breached any accounting rules.

The meeting is also aimed at offering Samsung BioLogics a chance to defend its stance on the regulatory probe, officials said.

A final confirmation of the regulatory probe will be made at a regular meeting, set for early next month, of the Securities and Futures Commission, a sub-commission within the Financial Services Commission, and which is responsible for the oversight of the securities and futures markets.

No further details of the session were provided because participants signed confidentiality agreements, FSC officials said.

The probe centers on questions about Samsung BioLogics’ sudden profit in 2015.

Founded in 2011 as a new growth engine of Samsung Group, Samsung BioLogics posted losses until 2014.  In 2015, however, the company posted a net profit of 1.9 trillion won (US$1.76 billion) after it changed the method used to calculate the value of its affiliate, Samsung Bioepis.

Samsung BioLogics has claimed that the change was in line with international accounting standards.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)