Mishcon de Reya partners back IPO plans as firm edges closer to listing September 10, 2021 Mishcon de Reya partners approved the law firm’s plans to go public on the London Stock Exchange, according to reports. Mishcon de Reya officials confirmed that at least three quarters of the partnership voted in favour of the planned initial public offering (IPO) of the firm, according to The Times. The law firm will be [...]
EY to spend $2bn on improving audits after Wirecard scandal September 9, 2021 EY will invest around $2bn (£1.4bn) over three years to improve the quality of its audits after the high-profile collapse of payments company Wirecard, according to the Financial Times who first reported the news. The funding is part of a larger, and record, $10bn investment plan, announced by EY yesterday, to finance staff training and [...]
KPMG wants nearly a third of staff to be from working class backgrounds September 9, 2021 In a first for a large business in Britain, KPMG has set a target for 29 per cent of its UK partners and directors to come from a working class background by 2030, the company said in an announcement today. Currently less than a quarter of KPMG’s partners, and a fifth of its directors, are [...]
Deloitte global revenue rises to $50bn with surge in Covid consulting September 8, 2021 Deloitte has today reported a 5.5 per cent rise in its global revenue for 2021 up to $50.2bn as it has seen demand for its advisory services grow during the pandemic. The firm also saw its workforce grow by 3.2 per cent to over 345,000 for the fiscal year ending 31 May 2021. The big [...]
Mishcon de Reya launches new £150m litigation financing unit September 8, 2021 Law firm Mishcon de Reya has today announced plans to launch a new litigation funding unit with Harbour, one of the biggest litigation and arbitration funders in the world. The new venture, known as MDR Solutions I, will be used to assess and finance prospective litigation and arbitration cases originated by Mishcon de Reya clients [...]
Exclusive: UK named world’s third best regulatory base, ahead of US and EU September 8, 2021 The UK is the world’s third best jurisdiction for multinational companies to base subsidiaries or ‘entities’ from a governance and regulatory standpoint, according to new research shared exclusively with City A.M. this morning. Singapore takes the top spot, followed by Australia while Kazakhstan came out as the most complex country out of over 160 jurisdictions [...]
KPMG boss intervenes in dispute with FRC over poor auditing standards September 7, 2021 The global head of KPMG has written to the UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) over the its threats to publish further criticism of the auditor’s repeated failings, the Financial Times first reported. Bill Thomas, KPMG’s global chair and chief executive, entered the increasingly public dispute between the big four auditor and the FRC, after executives [...]
EY hit with $1bn claim for one of the largest bankruptcies in Swiss history September 7, 2021 EY’s Swiss practice is facing investor claims for giving clean audits to opaque conglomerate Zeromax for years before it collapsed, according to the Financial Times who first reported the news. Zeromax, whose crash in 2010 made it the second-largest bankruptcy in Swiss history, made multimillion-dollar jewellery purchases and made irregular offshore payments – which the [...]
EU vs Astrazeneca: Vaccine legal battle over as UK pharma pledges jab deliveries September 3, 2021 The legal stand-off between the European Union (EU) and FTSE-listed Covid-19 vaccine maker Astrazeneca appears to be over. Astrazeneca and the European Commission have reached a settlement on the delivery of 200m vaccine doses still to be delivered by the drug com[any, ending a row about shortages that had heightened reputational damage on Astra and weighed [...]
Workplace race discrimination claims surge nearly 50 per cent in one year September 3, 2021 The number of discrimination claims leading to employment tribunals in the UK soared 48 per cent last year, according to the latest figures. The surge in cases in 2020 came amid both the global Black Lives Matter movement and the height of the pandemic which hit ethnic minorities hardest. There were a total of 3,641 [...]