Ernst and Young UK Reports Excellent Results, Beating Rival Big Four Firms

The Times of London just came out yesterday with Ernst & Young’s UK results (surprisingly, we couldn’t find it on the E&Y UK website)...


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Ernst & Young: External Challenges Drive Flat Revenue From FY 2008 To FY 2009

Ernst & Young just reported its combined worldwide results for the year ending 30 June 2009 (FY09), the first Big4 firm to report its global results.

Combined global firm revenues of US$21.4 billion for the fiscal year ended 30 June 2009 (FY09) decreased a modest 0.2% in local currency terms from the comparable period in FY 2008. In FY 2008, E&Y reported US$23.0 billion in global revenues, and in US dollar terms, the revenue actually declined 6.8% from 2008 to 2009. This shows the dramatic effect of the appreciation of the US dollar in this period against foreign currencies. In other words, one unit of foreign currency translated to much fewer US dollars in the FY 2009 fiscal year compared to the FY 2008 fiscal year. We have highlighted growth in both local currency and US$ terms in our analysis.

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Police Raid Ernst & Young HK Office in Akai Case

We highlight a breaking news story happening on the other side of the world, in Hong Kong the police yesterday raided the offices of Ernst & Young, the erstwhile auditors of Akai. Akai was the largest corporate collapse in Hong Kong, with similarities to the Enron case in the United States. This story is making current headlines in the small city state, making the first page of the influential South China Morning Post and also reported on Bloomberg Asia and Bloomberg.com’s home page today. 

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KPMG: Tax Authorities, Looking For Cash, May Push Transfer Pricing To Front Burner

Transfer Pricing (TP), or the setting of intercompany prices of goods and services transported across country borders by the same company is typically an esoteric tax issue which garners little attention under normal conditions. But as KPMG recently points out in its recently released Global Transfer Pricing Review, the tough economic environment is leading many governments to seek out new sources of tax by extending and tightening controls over cross-border transactions between companies within the same group.

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Deloitte Predicts Flat 2009 US Holiday Retail Sales, And A Lonely Mall Santa

Though there are many signs of economic rebound as we have seen from many recent Big4 firm surveys which are indicating consumer confidence, business recovery and overall growth. But there are equally troublesome spots which are looming on the horizon which say that the recovery is not going to be robust or as smart as everyone would like it to be.

Here’s a somewhat somber forecast from Deloitte on 2009 US holiday sales which is getting a lot of media play.

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Ernst and Young: Glamour and Secrecy in Upcoming 2009 Emmy Awards

We have blogged earlier about PricewaterhouseCoopers’ auditing of the Oscar Movie Academy Awards, which the firm has been solely handling for 75 years in complete secrecy with undisclosed locations, strict controls and tight personnel regulations.

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Deloitte UK and PwC UK Revenues Flat, Showing Tough External Conditions

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP UK just reported its annual results for the year ending June 30, 2009 and with Deloitte LLP UK reporting its annual results for the year ending May 31, 2009, we have now two data points to understand better how the mid-2008 to mid-2009 period is shaping up for the Big Four firms. Please note that the UK firms are not representative of the entire firms, but they are certainly indicative and the data does arrive close to their year ends, while the Big Four firms seem to have the latitude, as private partnerships, to report their annual results months after the year is closed at a timing of their choice.

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Big Four Firms Are Best Places To Launch A Career, Again

BusinessWeek just released its 2009 rankings of its much-anticipated “2009 Best Places To Launch A Career” list and for a second year, Big Four firms completely dominate the list, capturing the top four spots in the rankings. This year, only 69 companies made the list compared to 119 in 2008 due to more stringent criteria, making the 2009 list “both more exclusive and more competitive.” Thus, this year, there was more relative competition to make the list and this year’s rankings are at least 40% tougher than the previous year.

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Deloitte, First To Report In 2008, But Apparent Delays in 2009

Last year on July 23, 2008, we blogged the below about Deloitte’s 2008 results for the year July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008. We’re already in September 2009, and we scoured the Deloitte Global and Deloitte US sites for results for the year July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009...




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PricewaterhouseCoopers UK: Total Lehman Europe Claims May Exceed $100 Billion

PricewaterhouseCoopers UK issued this official PwC statement on their PwC UK website updating their efforts in the administration of Lehman Brothers International (Europe)

"The parent company, Lehman Brothers Holding Inc, and its various USA subsidiaries that are in Chapter 11, have all established a deadline for claims to be submitted in the next few weeks. We're dealing with a large number of entities and therefore the claims could be as much as $100 billion. These claims are exceptionally complex and we anticipate a large amount of further work in dealing with these claims. This is a normal part of the bankruptcy claims formulation and submission process. A significant number of claims arise as a result of guarantees issued by the parent company to its subsidiaries globally.


"We have invested a significant amount of time helping administrators in other affiliates understand the Lehman accounting systems so that we can all agree a standard approach to the reconciliation of inter company balances. If this can be achieved then it should reduce the likelihood of affiliates suing each other in pursuit of amounts that are owed between the different Lehman estates."

$100 Billion! That is an enormous number, and close to the 2008 GDP of the country of Kuwait. In bankruptcy though claimants likely only get cents on the dollar so in effect the actual monies coming back may be much more moderate.

Once you get past this shock, the second paragraph is also interesting. In effect, is PwC saying – affiliates, please get behind us in coming up with a common approach, else you will end up bickering and cross-suing each other to get any dollars back from a cleaned-out Lehman US entity??

Big Four Firms Provide Excellent Resources On IFRS Conversion

Many of our readers in the professional accounting, reporting, tax and corporate finance fields are already familiar with the impending adoption of IFRS rules in the US and many countries all over the world. We thought we would write a bit about the current situation and how it is being handled at the Big Four accounting firms, given that it is going to be a critical issue for them in terms of public auditing, financial statement reporting as public company clients either converge GAAP to IFRS or convert fully to IFRS in the next few years and require hand-holding, guidance and advice from the Big Four firms...

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Accenture Finally Moves Incorporation From Bermuda to Ireland

01 September 2009

After announcing earlier this year that it will switch its place of incorporation from Bermuda to Ireland, its official as of today September 1, 2009. After gaining required approval from the Supreme Court of Bermuda. Accenture today completed the change in its place of incorporation to Ireland from Bermuda. The company will continue to be registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and to be subject to SEC reporting requirements. And Accenture shares will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “ACN.”..

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Big4 Surveys: Optimism and Positive Sentiment Are Here Again

The Big Four firms periodically conduct global surveys on economic indicators, trends and specific industries. We have blogged earlier that such surveys have been quite accurate in gauging the advent and the depth of our ongoing economic crisis. Since these cover multiple industries, countries and executive levels and are conducted by independent and reputable firms, we can look to them as good indicators of global economic activity and a worthwhile complement to other well watched indices...



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Capgemini First Half Flat, But Second Half Expected Down, Sober Outlook

Capgemini recently reported its Q2-2009 results, and while sales for the first half (6 months) for 2009 were flat to the first six months of 2008 at EUR 4.4 billion, profits for 6 months of 2009 were sharply down from 2008. Operating profit for 2009 was EUR 167 million, down almost 40% from operating profit of 2008 of EUR 288 million, and some of this drop was due to restructuring charges in 2009. Operating margin% fell from 7.6% to 6.6%...

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Shocking Accounting Scandal at Huron Consulting Group

Just after market close on Friday July 31st, 2009, Huron Consulting Group dropped a bombshell on investors by announcing an intention to restate its 2006 to 2009 financial statements due to incorrect accounting of “non-cash charges relating to how payments received by the sellers of certain acquired businesses were subsequently redistributed among themselves and to other select Huron employees”. Shell shocked investors immediately sold HURN stock, causing the stock to fall by an astounding 70% from close of market on Friday at $45 to open at a paltry $12 per share at open of market on Monday August 3rd, 2009, and leading to an instant shareholder value disappearance of almost $700 million...

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Deloitte’s New Shift Index – Elegant Framework For A Complex World

We were intrigued by Deloitte’s newly unveiled “Shift Index” which “pushes beyond cyclical measurement and looks at the long-term rate of change and its impact on economic performance.” The Shift Index is “designed to measure the rate of change and magnitude of these long-term forces that spawn the extreme events currently observed in today’s business world.”...

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Q2-2009 IPO Activity Grows Seven-Fold Over Q1-2009, Signals Some Deal Optimism

Ernst and Young has just released its Q2-2009 global IPO report, and while activity in this quarter was substantially over previous Q1-2009 quarter, it was far below 2008 levels and driven largely by 3 key IPOs in developing countries...

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Accenture Q3-2009, Big Change From Prior Quarter – Investors Love It

In March 2009, Accenture (NYSE: ACN) delivered a shock to investors when it reported revenues and EPS for Q2-2009 under what investors were generally expecting and then dialed down expectations. For Q2-2009, Accenture’s EPS was 63 cents, 1 cent better than consensus expectations of 62 cents, but revenue of $5.27 billion was far less than what Wall Street was expecting at $5.53 billion. At that time, Accenture shares sank $4.60, or 14.4 percent, to $27.36 in morning trading on Friday, March 27, 2009. Management’s Q2-2009 commentary was sobering, and talked about sudden and dramatic shifts in clients and projects...

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High Net Worth Individuals Lose $8 Trillion In Just One Year!

We have blogged in prior years about the Capgemini Merrill Lynch World Wealth Report, since the results are fascinating and the numbers are simply mind-boggling. The 13th annual 2009 report was just released hours ago, and we bring you their (rather sobering) findings and our take...

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Miami Jury Finds BDO International Not Guilty – Huge Implications

We recently blogged on the recent ongoing trial on BDO International vs. Banco Espirito Santo in Miami, Florida with a jury in session to decide on the issue whether BDO Seidman, the US country firm, was an agent of BDO International, and whether the global umbrella firm should hold financial responsibility for the liabilities of the US firm...

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Grant Thornton Survey Indicates Optimism Returns to Pre-Recession Levels

A little under a month ago (May 14, 2009) we blogged about a number independently conducted recent surveys by the Big 4 firms as a gauge for the depth and breadth of the global economic crisis and any nascent signs of its ending...




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KPMG Advisory Reorganizes From 9 Lines To 3 Groups

We see from KPMG’s website this morning that there is an internal reorganization of its KPMG Advisory Service Line with a new operating model and reducing its currently nine different service lines:



1. Accounting Advisory Services
2. Business Performance Services
3. Corporate Finance
4. Financial Risk Management
5. Forensic
6. Internal Audit, Risk & Compliance Services
7. IT Advisory Services
8. Restructuring
9. Transaction Services

into three larger service groups effective October 1, 2009:

1. Performance & Technology
2. Transactions & Restructuring
3. Risk & Compliance...


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PwC Buys BearingPoint Commercial Services, Pays $19 MM More

Another development in the BearingPoint bankruptcy saga, after the finalization of the Federal Services unit sale to Deloitte for $350 million, the bankruptcy court has authorized the sale of the

North American Commercial Services business, including its Financial Services segment and

associated Global Delivery Centers, to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the highest bidder for this service line. Under the terms of its winning bid at an auction, PwC will acquire the majority of BearingPoint’s Commercial Services unit for $44 million, subject to contractual adjustments. Subject to customary closing conditions, the sale is expected to be finalized by the end of June...

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Accenture To Leave Sunny Bermuda For The Emerald Isle

Yesterday, Accenture’s Board of Directors unanimously approved a plan to change its place of incorporation from Hamilton, Bermuda to Dublin, Ireland. This will be put to shareholder vote in the next four months...

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BDO Seidman Vs Banco Espirito Case - Trial Begins Tomorrow in Florida Court

BDO Seidman Vs Banco Espirito Case - Trial Begins Tomorrow in Florida Court

In August of 2007, we had blogged about a large $521 million financial judgment against BDO Seidman in its audit of Banco Espirito Santo of Portugal. At that time, we said,

“Banco Espirito Santo claimed it partnered with Bankest Capital to form E.S. Bankest in late 1990s relying on (BDO Seidman's) faulty audits that Bankest Capital's income had nearly tripled from 1995 to 1996. The bank also relied on later audits from BDO Seidman, which certified audits for E.S. Bankest accounts totaling some $225 million, of which only $5 million represented legitimate income.The bank is understandably happy with this verdict, but BDO Seidman will appeal it vigorously, by posting a $50 million bail. As expected, the firm will argue that senior management at Banco Espirito Santo was aware of this fraud and was also complicit.”...


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Deloitte Social Media Survey Results May Surprise You

Deloitte has just released its 2009 Ethics & Workplace Survey with some fascinating findings and implications for professionals, employers, social networks and internet behavior. It shows the stark differences between the views of employers and employees and the blurring lines between professional and personal lives, the tensions between the benefits from participating in social media, balanced against reputational risks of any missteps...

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Big4 Firm Surveys Uniformly Indicate Weak Sentiment, Some Recent Hope

We looked at some survey results from independently conducted surveys by the Big 4 firms in recent months as a gauge for the depth and breadth of the global economic crisis and any nascent signs of its ending...


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Capgemini Q1-2009 Results Stable, Investors Push Shares Up 3 Percent

Capgemini released its Q1-2009 results with revenues of €2,205 million, up 0.9% compared to Q1-2009 of €2,205 million but down 0.3% at constant exchange rates.

Outsourcing Services increased 1.1% and Technology Services edged up 0.4%;
Sogeti declined 0.7% while newly-formed Consulting Services dropped 9.8%.

By geography, United Kingdom & Ireland rose strongly at 7.0%, France and Benelux revenues dropped 0.8% and 0.6%, respectively. North America sales had the worst results, falling 6.9% than Q1-2008.

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NVCA Wants to Broaden Big Four to Global Six

The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) has come up with four key recommendations to help US venture-backed companies, to kick start the IPO market, which decreased in 2008 to only 6 IPOs in the United States. Taking recommendations from capital market leaders, the NVCA focuses on the venture capital industry, investment banking, accounting professions, law firms, stock exchanges and the government to to restore a vibrant IPO environment once the economy comes back.

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Big4 Firms Make Top 250 in Latest Fortune 500 List

Fortune Magazine just released its Fortune 500 list of top US companies by revenue for the year 2008. Not surprisingly, the top companies in this list were oil giant Exxon at a staggering $443 billion, followed by ubiquitous Walmart at $406 billion, multinational oil companies Chevron at $263 billion & Chevron Phillips at $231 billion and international conglomerate GE at $183 billion. After the top ten, there is a steep drop with number 11 Bank of America at $113 billion and then down the list, number 50 Safeway with $44 billion, and then number 90 Alcoa with $28 billion.

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Capgemini Has New SBU – Consulting, Largest in Europe, 4,000 Consultants

Capgemini just announced a new Strategic Business Unit, Capgemini Consulting Services with revenues of EUR 700 million (8 % of Capgemini 2008 revenues of EUR 8.7 Billion) and over 4,000 expert strategy and management consultants in more than 30 countries as part of a corporate reorganization.

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EY Report Shows Q1-2009 IPO Activity Completely Stalled – Only 50 Worldwide

As widely expected, exit strategies through initial public offerings to investors took a beating in the last three months, testimony to a slow capital market and unenthusiastic investors. Ernst & Young confirms that in its just-released Q1-2009 Global IPO update. There were just 50 IPOs worldwide in Q1-2009 raising about US$1.4 billion in capital, with only 2 deals over US$100 million...

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Mark-to-Market Accounting Moves to Center Stage

FAS 157, the FASB rule which determines how financial institutions evaluate the value of their financial assets on their balance sheets has been brewing as a hot topic for a while and today moved to center stage based on a meeting of the Financial Standards Accounting Board which relaxed some of the guidelines on how this rule can be applied in the illiquid credit markets that we are now operating in now...

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PwC Finds 2008 Internet Advertising Robust, Growing and Resilient

An industry survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and sponsored by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) just released today shows that US internet advertising revenue is strong, growing and fairly resilient to the economic slowdown...

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Accenture Indicates Profound and Dramatic Shift At Clients, Shares Swoon

Accenture had its Q2-2009 conference call yesterday at 4:30pm and we summarize for you the key points of that call. Accenture’s stock fell 11% upon release of Q2-2009 earnings, although they beat the Q2-2009 EPS estimate by 1 cent (actual 63 cents versus consensus 62 cents), the revenue was less than expectations and the outlook for the third quarter and the year was lowered quite significantly. We were anticipating a Q2 beat, but certainly not expecting such a sharp decrease in out-quarters, and this we found was equally surprising to the company, analysts and investors. ACN dropped its revenue and EPS guidance for the year, citing uncertainty, FX headwinds and lack of visibility, which did not sit well with investors...

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The Big Four Blog Is On Alltop

Yes, our blog has been selected to be featured on the Accounting topic of Alltop, an aggregator of the top blogs on the internet.

We’re excited to be part of Alltop, along with other related leading blogs on this subject, such as CPA Trendlines, Re:The Auditors, Skeptical CPA, Alex Malley, Deloitte and others...

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Grant Thornton Finds Sobering Outcomes for 2009 Executive Pay

We step beyond the Big Four firms for this blog post, going to the home page of Grant Thornton (GT) for an interesting and very relevant study on executive compensation. This is fresh off the press as it captures sentiment as of February 2009. The findings are quite sobering and the ultimate impact of the slowing economy is being felt where it hurts the most – the executive wallet...

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BearingPoint Breakup Imminent, Business Parts Sold to Multiple Buyers

BearingPoint is very likely to break apart very soon, and sell all its businesses to either other Big4 firms or to local management teams. According the company’s press release on March 23, 2009, all parts of BearingPoint have been sold / in the process of being sold / likely to be sold in different parts to different parties as below...

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Successful Growth At True Partners Consulting In Just 3 Years

March 25, 2009

Three years ago, almost to the day (March 22, 2006), we blogged about True Partners, a a niche tax and advisory consulting firm in Chicago, with 25 Andersen alumni and CEO Cary McMillan, who was head of Andersen’s Chicago office and then CFO of Sara Lee. At that time, the start-up had 25 personnel and offered an alternative to SOX-restricted Big Four firms...



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Tough Q2-2009 Bar for Accenture, but Likely to Match Expectations

Accenture is reporting its Q2-2009 (for the three months from November 2008 to February 2009) results on Thursday March 26, 2009, and the consensus Wall Street analyst estimate for earnings is 62 cents per share compared to year-ago 64 cents per share in Q2-2008, 3% lower. This is the average estimate from 18 analysts who follow the stock and have varying estimates between 58 cents and 67 cents per share...

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Deloitte’s Employability Initiative Gets New Boost in the UK

Deloitte has been supporting the Employability Initiative since 2001.

In London it called again for major UK employers to “help champion skills training and tackle the chronic shortage of “employability” skills.”

In an event, attended by senior business leaders, government and education providers, and who will join the firm in championing and supporting this type of training for all young people...

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Want to Recession-proof Your Job Search? PwC Shows How-To

We recently came across a very interesting and useful resource PricewaterhouseCoopers has recently provided on its website. It is a free new career toolkit to give college students a competitive advantage in their job search, and has short video vignettes with career tips, a video Q&A for students' career questions and downloadable worksheets for career planning...

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KPMG Is Number One Best Big Company to Work For in the UK

KPMG is the “Best Big Company to Work For in 2009” in the United Kingdom according to The Sunday Times of the UK. It beats 2nd place Bourne Leisure and 3rd American Express. This is from one of the most respected newspapers in the island and widely quoted list, so kudos to Big Four firm KPMG for securing this top honor...

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GM Defends Viability Plan Against Deloitte Doubts on Going Concern

In the recently issued March 4th financial year 2008 10-K annual SEC filing for General Motors Corporation, Deloitte & Touche, its public auditors surprised everyone by expressing serious doubt about GM’s ability to continue as a going concern in their auditors opinion to GM’s financial statements. Not that the auto industry’s woes are not publicly known, but a definitive statement on “substantial doubts” on a “going concern” are strong words to place in a public document. This can immediately trigger a number of covenants and provisions in bondholder contracts to potentially lead to repayment of principal and eventual bankruptcy. However, GM has been able to negotiate with its lenders to forgive at least this breach of covenants....

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Capgemini Posts 2008 Revenue Growth of 5pp and Increase in Operating Margin

Capgemini recently posted its full year 2008 financial results, creditable performance given the heavy economic global turmoil that has affected every country and industry all over the world.

2008 revenue at EUR 8.7 billion was up 5% on local currency terms versus 2007 revenue, but was flat on Euro terms to the reported 2007 revenue of EUR 8.7 billion, as the Euro and GB Pound had appreciated against the US dollar at least for the first ten months of 2008. Operating profit as a percentage of revenue actually increased from 7.4% in 2007 to 8.5% in 2008, and operating profit in EUR terms increased from 493 million to 586 million. Capgemini decreased somewhat its cash position, holding EUR 774 million of cash at end of 2008 versus EUR 889 million of cash at end of 2007. Consulting and Outsourcing bookings rose to EUR 9.3 billion in 2008, up 4% from 2007...

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Golf and Big Four Firms – Drama and Excitement Next Week!

When do the legendary game of golf and great Big Four firms meet on equal ground?

This intersection happens when two of the top players in the world are sponsored by two of the Big Four firms. Add to that background some competitive drama, and you have the makings of a golf thriller...


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BearingPoint Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Today

Today, BearingPoint, Inc. announced “it has achieved a financial restructuring agreement with its senior secured lenders that will significantly reduce its debt and improve its capital structure.”

In other words, the firm is bankrupt...

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PwC CEO Confidence Survey Shows All-Time Low Confidence

PricewaterhouseCoopers’s recently published 12th annual CEO survey tells us nearly what every other survey indicates. Echoing the pessimism which Deloitte found in January 2009 in global CFOs, this shows that CEO confidence is at an all-time low. Globally, only 21% of CEOs seem to be very confident on any revenue growth at all in the next 12 months. This is spectacularly down from a reading of 50% in last year's Global Annual Survey...

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KPMG's Novel Experiment for 4 Day Work Week Appears Closer to Fruition

Last month KPMG UK introduced a scheme where all of KPMG UK's 11,000 employees could as a group take a voluntary pay cut through either a 4 day work week or a sabbatical in order to avoid any job cuts for employees selectively affected by the global economic crisis...


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PricewaterhouseCoopers Celebrates 75 years "Diamond Anniversary" Counting Oscars® Ballots

The upcoming 81st Annual Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars will be held in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 22, 2009.

And this year marks an important landmark for a Big Four firm....




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Accenture Stock Holding Up, Tremendous Operating Performance

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) stock has performed extraordinary well over this credit crisis and against the sinking global stockmarket. In 2008, the Accenture stock fell only 7.6%, 30% better than its industry and 31% better than the S&P500 index. At the current price of $31.56, the stock has been fairly flat compared to its level in January 2008. In the same period, the S&P500 has dropped by around 40% and continued its fall in January 2009 by another 9%...

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