| KPMG Cambridge toasts UK-German tie-up |
| Written by Business Weekly | |
| Thursday, 22 March 2007 | |
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KPMG in Cambridge will benefit from a proposed merger of its UK and German firms – a move that will create Europe’s largest accountancy firm with revenues in excess of £2 billion. The merger takes effect from October.
It is the first such merger among firms representing global accounting networks. The merger takes advantage of the European Commission’s Eighth Directive legislation, which clarifies the duties of statutory auditors, sets clear principles to ensure objectivity and allows cross-border ownership of accountancy firms. The firm will be led by two joint chairmen, John Griffith-Jones and Prof. Rolf Nonnenmacher, currently chairman of the managing board, KPMG Deutsche Treuhand-Gesellschaft AG. Griffith-Jones said: “The approval to merge our two firms marks the growing significance of Europe’s capital markets and the importance of London and Frankfurt as global financial centres. “It will allow us to serve global clients more effectively, provide our people with new and exciting opportunities and – by combining the strength and quality of our audit practices – help support the public interest and the capital markets.” Robert Ferguson, who heads up KPMG’s Cambridge office, said the firm’s local offices in the UK already enjoyed a network of contacts with counterparts in Germany and already worked together in multinational teams on behalf of a number of clients. Ferguson said the merger would allow each of the local offices to build on these networks and further invest in developing seamless, cross border services for clients in their respective markets. He said: “For example, KPMG in Cambridge worked closely with colleagues in KPMG’s Frankfurt office to assist one of its clients – Plastic Logic – to identify and locate a new manufacturing facility in Germany.” Plastic Logic is the leader in plastic electronics manufacturing, a revolutionary new technology for printing electronic devices. The company was originally spun out of Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory in 2000. |
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