Europe still backs plan for KPMG/Andersen merger
Wednesday March 27 2002
Mike Rake, chairman of KPMG Europe, Middle East and Asia, said talks to merge with Andersen's non-US operations were continuing, despite a string of defections by Andersen partnerships to rivals.
"The talks are ongoing. They are positive and constructive, but there is still a lot of ground to cover," Rake said.
A KPMG spokesman said Europe was still backing merger talks which started last week, including Spain, Andersen's star European business and seen by some industry experts as the key to holding the deal together.
Andersen Worldwide is negotiating to combine its non-US operations with KPMG, as Andersen in the United States grapples with a criminal indictment over its role in the fall of energy trader Enron.
Andersen, the smallest of the big five global accounting groups, is seen as having no independent future in the wake of the Enron scandal.
Its US clients are leaving in droves and it faces a slew of lawsuits.
