PwC is making "tangible investments" to ensure the Big Four firm has high quality and sustainable business in China, it said in a memo to staff after Chinese regulators on Friday hit the company's mainland unit with a record penalty.

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.

By Julie Zhu and Xie Yu HONG KONG (Reuters) -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.

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

The focus of a lengthy probe into PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s China business now shifts to Hong Kong after the accounting firm was hit with a record fine in the mainland over its audit of failed 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.