Asian Tech Press (Mar. 9) -- A French auditor has reportedly questioned SoftBank's bookkeeping at the Paris-based unit that developed its Pepper robot.

Japan's SoftBank Group Corp is preparing to sell its subsidiary in France that specializes in developing the Pepper robot due to poor business conditions.

Reuters exclusively reported that a French auditor had expressed doubts about the handling of the local unit of SoftBank's robotics business.

Two people familiar with the matter said the unit was booked at a loss and did not pay taxes.

Specifically, auditor Cabinet Boisseau's 196-page report issued in July questioned the Japanese firm's decision to treat its Paris-based robotics business as having a high level of autonomy for accounting purposes.

The report said the treatment was "clearly debatable" on the grounds that the local company's "extremely limited" abilityability to make its own decisions.