Tag: KPMG

It Sounds Like KPMG Is *ThisClose* to Jumping Ernst & Young in Revenues

Not sure how we missed this story but thanks to the random commenter who brought it to our attention. New KPMG Global Chairman Michael Andrew was recently interviewed by The Australian and it sounds like KPMG had a pretty kickass fiscal 2011.

We’re still waiting for the official revenue numbers (I’m guessing they’ll be out next week) but Drew kinda spilled the beans already:

New KPMG global chairman Michael Andrew revealed to The Weekend Australian yesterday that the company had recorded a 10.1 per cent increase in revenue in the past financial year, to $22.7 billion. The numbers are due to be released officially later this month.

“If we had not had the Japanese earthquake, I suspect we would have gone past Ernst & Young. Japan is a good market for us. We had really good growth in the Americas and really good growth in tax,” he said yesterday.

FUCKING JAPAN AND YOUR EPIC NATURAL DISASTER! You just cost one of the premier professional services firms on EARTH the chance to leave a rival in the dust. Since there was enormous death and destruction, I guess everyone at the firm will let this go but they’re trying really hard not to throw out some pro forma numbers just for the sake of argument. ANYWAY, for those of you scoring at home, the $22.7 bil puts the House of Klynveld slightly behind E&Y who racked up $22.9 billion for FY ’11. It will also make for the second straight year of a bumper crop of Omaha Steaks for the employees at the firm.

But despite earthquakes and actual hard numbers, Mike is calling it like he sees it:

“We are basically equal No 3. There is still a big gap to PwC and Deloitte, which have been buying large consulting practices in the systems implementation area.”

In other words, if all things were equal, KPMG would probably be the largest firm. They’re just keeping their heads about it.

KPMG grows to match rival Ernst & Young [The Australian]

Here’s Your KPMG Town Hall Open Thread

We’ve got it on good authority that the KPMG town hall is happening circa now although I am definitely not present for the event.


That being said, since we’re aware of the proceedings, it seems fair to allow the same opportunity for Klynveldians as we gave to the mini-BoMos. So if you’re hearing things from John Veihmeyer that you like, don’t like, or you’ve ideas of the names Johnny V. would mistakenly call me other than “Colin” feel free to sound off below.

KPMG Finds Half of That MF Global Client Money; Still Not Making Any Promises

After apologizing for the slow pace, it appears the House of Klynveld has upped their game.

“We have so far collected about a half of the approximate $1 billion outstanding but it is hard to speculate on the final amount given we are dependent on third parties,” said KPMG partner Richard Heis in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday.

Okay, so there’s still half a bil out there somewhere. Anybody seen it? No? No worries, then. KPMG has a backup plan.

The administrator confirmed last week that it had sold MF Global’s stake in the London Metals Exchange to JP Morgan and the broker’s British metals desk had been offloaded to former rival FCStone. Heis said: “There are other parts of the business that could be sold and we are looking to sell them. We’re hopeful of making further announcements shortly.”

Your continued patience is appreciated.

KPMG recovers $500 million of MFG client money [Reuters]

PwC Poaches a KPMG Partner and Issues a Press Release, Part VI

Today in KPMG is the PwC Triple-A team news, partner Erik Hansen has joined the P. Dubs Houston office as a risk assurances partner leading the firm’s Internal Audit Practice in the Oil and Gas Industry Sectors. I suppose it goes without saying that Mr. Hansen is pretty adept in the energy field, as well as auditing:

Hansen has served companies in the oil and gas industry on issues related to internal audit outsourcing and co-sourcing solutions, Sarbanes-Oxley assistance services, as well as other risk and control-related services. He has also served as an instructor in several KPMG training programs designed to provide partners and managers with the skills and knowledge necessary to be effective in the marketplace.

Enjoy Houston, Erik! Just keep your wits about you at the happy hours down there.

[via PwC]
Earlier: More posts on KPMG v. PwC.

In Case the Tryptophan Doesn’t Work, Here Are the KPMG and PwC PCAOB Inspection Reports for Your Reading Pleasure

Actually, if you’re in to this sort of thing, it could make for some pretty interesting reading.


We pointed to a couple of reports this morning (and there are more) out there on the Board’s criticisms of the two firms, so we won’t repeat them here. The most notable thing seems to be each firm’s response to the report. KPMG went with the standard three-paragr��������������������er that promises that they’ll suck less at auditing in the future.

2011_KPMG_LLP_US


But as Floyd Norris pointed out, PwC’s Chairman and Senior Partner Bob Moritz as well as Assurance Leader Tim Ryan put their names on the firm’s response to the Board’s inspection that outlined what steps were being taken to improve the audit quality, which is a first. The firm also released this statement from BoMo, acknowledging the slight uptick in deficiencies:

PwC is built on our reputation for delivering quality. We also recognize that the role we play in the capital markets requires consistent, high-quality audit performance. We therefore are focused on the increase in the number of deficiencies in our audit performance reported in the 2010 PCAOB inspection over prior years. We are working to strengthen and sharpen the firm’s audit quality, including making investments designed to improve our performance over both the short- and long-term.

2011_PricewaterhouseCoopers_LLP

So you can all this – signatures, action plans, etc. – for what it’s worth but the messaging has certainly changed and it differentiates PwC from KPMG. Will have to wait and see if Deloitte or E&Y follow suit.

General Electric Managed to Keep Their Tax Return Under 60,000 Pages

Recently, Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) was chattin’ up some citizens at a townhall meeting where he told a little anecdote about asking a GE “tax officer” how long the company’s tax return was for this year. He was told (and the Weekly Standard confirmed) that it was in the nabe of 57,000 pages. Granted, GE filed their return electronically, so there’s no way we can officially know what the count is but the combination of the world’s best tax law firm and a grip of savvy loaned KPMG employees managed to keep it under 60k. Nice job, everyone. [TWS via TaxProf]