PwC to become LLP
PricewaterhouseCoopers is set become a limited liability partnership as early as June this year, and is likely to to publish its UK accounts in 2003, AccountancyAge.com has today learnt.
Kieran Poynter, UK managing partner at PwC, this afternoon confirmed speculation the Big Five firm would move towards LLP status and publish its accounts.
Poynter admitted he was traditionally ‘of the camp that says no’ to accounts disclosure, but with the firm’s growing encouragement for companies to improve financial reporting disclosures, the firm thought it was time it ‘practised what it preached’.
PwC was one of the firms that campaigned the hardest to give accountancy firms the opportunity to limit their liability, but to date only one Big Five firm, Ernst & Young, has adopted LLP status.
KPMG and E&Y have been calling for PwC to publish its accounts for a number of years. Their UK arms have published full accounts for several years.
PwC’s year end is 30 June so publication of the firm’s first set of accounts is expected in June 2003, at the earliest.
Poynter also confirmed the firm’s intentions to separate its consulting arm this year.