PwC’s Indian unit has been banned from auditing listed companies for two years, over one of the country’s biggest corporate scandals.

Price Waterhouse was auditor for Satyam computers when company owner Ramalinga Raju admitted to inflating earnings.

The ban by Indian market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board (Sebi) will come into effect on 31 March.

Price Waterhouse has said that it will appeal the decision in court.

It added that “there has been no intentional wrongdoing by [PwC] firms in the unprecedented management perpetrated fraud at Satyam”.

In January 2009, Raju stunned the corporate world by admitting to accounting malpractices to inflate earnings and assets for years.

Price Waterhouse’s Indian arm, PW Bangalore, was Satyam’s auditor during this period.

The collapse of Satyam Computers in 2009 cost shareholders more than $2bn and rocked India’s IT industry.

Analysts said it was the biggest fraud at a listed company in India.

(BBC)