News in brief.

– KPMG Consulting’s decision to cut the number of common shares in an initial public offering to 112 million and raise the price to $16 – $18 per share could cut more than $1bn (#678m) off its market value when it goes public. Under the new share scheme KPMG Consulting would only have a maximum value of $2.016bn if shares were bought at a premium. The firm revealed the changes in a filing to the SEC in the US. A date has yet to be fixed for the flotation. For more on this story see www.accountancyage.com/News/1116629. – The Financial Services Authority has denied that changes to how companies report information on the London Stock Exchange would increase compliance costs. Commenting after it was revealed that the FSA was considering breaking up the LSE’s Regulatory News Service’s monopoly of supplying information to the stock exchange, a spokesman said that increased competition would drive down fees for releasing news. Further news is at www.accountancyage.com/News/1116638 and on page 3. – The Financial Reporting Council has published its annual review for 2000, setting out its own activities and those of its two operational bodies, the Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Reporting Review Panel. Out-going chairman Sir Sydney Lipworth QC (left) reviewed the first 10 years of the council while former chairman of the ASB Sir David Tweedie predicted a leading role for the board in Europe and internationally. For more information about the Financial Reporting Council see www.frc.org.uk. – Customs & Excise is aiming to re-organise all its activities into two units by 1 April 2001. The business services and taxes unit, with 13,000 staff, will be made up of all business taxes, information services, international movements and trade services. The law enforcement unit will comprise all investigation, intelligence and detection activities, made up of 8,000 staff. Find out more about this story and read other Customs news at www.hmce.gov.uk. – The two Houses of Parliament have announced the members of the joint committee on tax simplification, created to review legislation produced by the tax law rewrite project, first established in 1996 to make existing legislation clearer and easier to use. Chaired by Kenneth Clarke, the committee has 13 members including paymaster general Dawn Primarolo, Labour’s Joe Ashton, Lord Howe of Aberavon and Liberal Democrat Lord Goodhart. More on this story can be found at www.accountancyage.com/Tax/1116434. – Tenon, the UK-quoted accountancy consolidator, has set up its first start-up office in Birmingham. Tenon West Midlands Ltd will initially offer tax, corporate finance, financial advisory and corporate recovery services. It expects to be fully operational by the middle of this year. TWM will be managed by former HLB Kidsons partner John Joyce and Jonathan Hall, a former director of Forman Hardy Holdings in Nottingham. More on Tenon at www.accountancyage.com/Business/1116171. – Increasing work pressures caused by the impact of corporate governance is leading to growing tension among Britain’s non-executive directors according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. The survey: ‘Non-Executive Directors: A Survey of Practice and Opinion’ revealed that half of all company secretaries surveyed felt demands on the time of non-execs increased significantly (by more than 25%) in the last three to five years, with one in four feeling the role has increased by a major extent (up to 50%) in the same period.

Find out more information at PwC’s website on www.pwcglobal.co.uk.

– Financial planning software provider Adaytum has told 18 of its administration and support staff they are likely to be made redundant. The job losses, which are expected to be confirmed this week from its Bristol office, have come as the organisation moves a number of operations from Bristol to Minneapolis.The staff involved have been invited to apply for vacancies in the company. More technology stories can be found on page 8.

– The new board members of the International Accounting Standards Committee are to be announced today.The full board will be named by Sir David Tweedie, board chairman and former head of the UK’s standard setter, at 3pm in London and by Paul Volker, chairman of the IASC Trustees, in New York. To read the full story visit www.AccountancyAge.com.