The Romanian market of professional services - audit, tax and business consulting, disputed by the offices of the top four players in this field - PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), KPMG, Ernst&Young, Deloitte&Touche, has come to total about $50 million in 2002, following a modest increase.
Last year was the start of a fiercer competition between the four companies, as a result of Andersen's disappearance and Ernst & Young's consolidation, with the latter taking over the former. The deal propelled E&Y to a leading market position, second only to PwC, while KPMG fell to the third position, followed by Deloitte&Touche. The businesses of the four are not entirely comparable, as the services they provide vary quite a lot from one company to another.
The overall number of clients, that is the demand for consulting services has not increased much, which shows in the low number of deals concluded in 2002.
The market leader, PwC Romania says it registered approximately 11% turnover growth, therefore collecting some $16 million in revenues. The top performer last year was the business consulting department, due to the higher interest from foreign investors.
"We may say the overall turnover of the "Big Four" in Romania amounted to $50 million in 2002. It is difficult to give a precise estimate, because the services provided vary from company to company and the missions carried out by companies headquartered abroad as part of the PHARE programme or other programmes cannot be rigorously listed in statistics," says Jean-Pierre Vigroux, Country Senior Partner at PwC.
Viorel Batu, head of the Business Consulting department and partner of the new Ernst&Young and former head of the late Andersen is more optimistic, estimating the market at $60 million.
"To Andersen, 2002 was the best year in a decade. Not particularly because of the market growth, but due to a diversification of the products offered to our clients. The Romanian market gave us a warm welcome, as Romanian companies made up most of our clients. We registered a slight decline in the tax department because most of our clients on the segment were multinationals," Batu says.
Victor Kevehazi, senior partner at KPMG Romania says the market increased in 2002, as did his company's business, but did not disclose any further details.
Paul-Andre Michaud, Deloitte&Touche managing partner in his turn says 2002 did not come with significant net growth, given that most of the time the clients just migrated from one company to another, without too many new arrivals.
Had the Andersen-KPMG deal come through, the latter would have greatly improved its position on the market, breathing down PwC Romania's neck. Andersen had carried out talks with Deloitte&Touche, as well, which was interested in such a deal that had, after all, been completed on many other European markets. As a result, many Andersen clients switched to Deloitte&Touche, because this is what their parent companies did in the countries where D&T actually took over Andersen's business.
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
