* Potential accounting irregularities at U.S. drinks unit
* Still committed to review, potential sale of business
* Shares down 9.8 percent
By Aaron Gray-Block
AMSTERDAM, June 15 (Reuters) - Dutch Wessanen NV said it remained committed to a possible sale of its U.S. drinks company ABC despite finding potential accounting irregularities, but could not say when its review of the unit will be completed.
The Dutch food group said on Monday it discovered potential irregularities in the financial reports of American Beverage Corporation going back to 2006 and that Wessanen equity at the end of 2008 might be overstated by about 10 million euros, reducing it to about 361.6 million euros ($502 million).
Shares in Wessanen fell sharply and at 1253 GMT were down 9.8 percent at 2.9 euros to be the biggest decliner in a negative Amsterdam market, underperforming the midcap AMX index which was down 0.8 percent.
"This is clearly very disappointing," Wessanen spokesman Adriaan Robertson said. "It is difficult to say what impact it will have on the sales process other than the review process of the potential sale will be delayed for some time."
Wessanen said in February it would assess a possible sale of ABC and later announced in April a strategic review of its entire North American operations, with the aim to complete that review in the third quarter.
Robertson said the delay in the ABC review would not impact the timing of its review of the other North American businesses, primarily made up of its distribution business Tree of Life (TOL).
Wessanen said last week it was not yet in concrete talks over the TOL business and Robertson reiterated that on Monday.
The company said the investigation into the potential irregularities at ABC is in its early stages, but ABC's Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer have left the company and new management has been appointed.
"The accounting irregularities at ABC are a negative surprise and will also affect ABC's valuation negatively, although the exact impact will be difficult to assess as long as the cause for the shortfall remains uncertain," SNS Securities analyst Richard Withagen said.
Wessanen, which is struggling to reduce debt as the economic downturn bites into its profit, reiterated its second quarter operating profit outlook excluding ABC.
The company said last month second-quarter EBIT would be about equal to the 10.7 million euros it reported last year, which excluded incidental gains. Excluding the ABC result, Wessanen's second-quarter EBIT last year was 6.1 million euros. ($1=.7203 Euro) (Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)