Chinese regulators have hit PwC’s auditing unit in mainland China with a six-month business suspension and a record fine of 441 million yuan ($62 million) over the firm’s audit of troubled property developer China Evergrande Group.

Authorities also imposed a six-month suspension on the local operations of the global firm, which was once one a dominant auditing firm in China.

Chinese regulators said the firm failed to maintain professional skepticism for its work related to the country’s recent real-estate bust.

China halted some of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s business for six months for its role in auditing China Evergrande Group.

Chinese regulators hit PwC's mainland China unit with a six-month suspension and a record fine of 441 million yuan ($62 million) on Friday over the firm's audit of failed property developer China Evergrande Group .

Based on China's Securities Law, the commission confiscated the auditing unit's revenue involved in the Evergrande case of 27.74 million yuan and fined it 297 million yuan — totaling about 325 million yuan, which, according to the commission, was a "record-breaking" punishment against auditing firms.

Chinese regulators imposed a six-month business suspension and a record 441 million yuan fine on PwC's auditing unit in mainland China over its audit of the troubled property developer China Evergrande Group.

Chinese authorities have banned the accounting firm PwC for six months and fined it over 400 million yuan ($56.4 million) over its involvement in the audit of collapsed property developer Evergrande.

PwC's Chinese arm has been suspended from the country for six months over its work on the collapsed Chinese property giant Evergrande. The Big Four accountancy firm is also being fined more than $62m (£47m) after Chinese authorities said it had helped cover up fraud at Evergrande.