FTSE100 companies 'have 15,000 subsidiaries'
PwC report looks at network of companies underlying UK's top 100, suggesting dormant companies are a 'threat to transparency'
The UK’s 100 biggest companies maintain more than 15,000 subsidiaries, PwC
says today, in a report suggesting that such companies are a ‘threat to
transparency’.
The firm says that almost half of such companies are dormant, and may be
costing the FTSE100 more than £30m a year to maintain.
Richard Setchim, head of corporate simplification and reconstruction at PwC,
said that regulators and other outsiders ‘might be left wondering’ about the
‘clutter and complexity’ of groups with large networks of subsidiaries with no
obvious purpose, although he added there was no suggestion of anything suspect
going on.
‘Groups have grown like Topsy following acquisitions and the like. There is
an awful lot of clutter in UK group accounts that is actually unnecessary,’ said
Setchim.