Andersens takes top slot in front of KPMG
Andersen Worldwide grabbed the top slot among UK accountancy firms last week when it revealed that net fee income had jumped 15% to u620.5m for the year to 31 August.
The New York-based firm narrowly pipped Coopers & Lybrand on the back of a strong audit performance by Arthur Andersen and a string of outsourcing deals by Andersen Consulting.
Coopers reported net revenues of u619m last month. Ernst & Young and Deloitte & Touche have yet to produce their figures this year, while Price Waterhouse refused to publish UK figures when its wordwide results were produced last month.
KPMG declared this week that worldwide revenues grew by 8% from $7.5bn to $8.1bn for the year ending 30 September. KPMG said the growth had come in a year when it had made ‘significant investment in developing and implementing new products and services, as well as upgrading the firm’s technology around the globe’.
International chairman Jon Madonna said: ‘We need to grow faster and will do so through these new products and services.’ KPMG last reported gross fee income for the UK of u588m in January.
Arthur Andersen contributed u295.3m in net fee income. The audit and accounting practice gained 13% to u145m, while the tax practice produced a fee income rise of 15% to u112m.
Jim Wadia, the firm’s UK managing partner, said the growth in audit and accounting came from existing clients and new appointments such as Airtours, Gestetner and LIG. He added: ‘Our business advisory work spanned a broad spectrum of activity for many clients, both audit and non-audit, including BAA, Dixons, London Electricity and BNFL.’
He added: ‘Cross border assignments and corporate transactions, such as assisting with the Hanson demerger, had proved strong areas for the corporate tax practice.’
Andersen Consulting contributed u310m of net revenue in the UK, but said it would not be able to produce a more detailed breakdown until next year.
Insiders said the bulk of the rise came from outsourcing deals. Last year the firm added several clients to its list, including retail group Sears and oil company Conoco. The firm has also profited from consultancy work correcting computer systems that are set to fail in the year 2000. Andersens law firms Garrett & Co and Dorman Jeffrey & Co generated fee income of u14.9m.
Andersen Worldwide maintained its position as the world’s largest professional services firm with an overall increase in revenues of 17% to $9.5bn.
