And then there were four

Last week’s announcement that ‘Ginger Spice’ Geri Halliwell had quit the Spice Girls (seen above, putting a brave face on Halliwell’s failure to turn up at last Friday’s Oslo concert) broke more than just fans’ hearts.

Deloitte & Touche was dragged into the saga on Monday, as the firm’s entertainment specialist Charles Bradbrook found himself embroiled in talks on how to split Halliwell’s assets from the rest of the group’s.

Deloittes and Bradbrook remained tight-lipped about the schism, but David Murrell, media and entertainment partner at KPMG, said his firm was contacted by solicitors acting for Halliwell. ‘Whenever you get a split like this, the artiste invariably looks for different advisers because of conflicts of interest,’ he said.

In 1997, following their first number one single, ‘Wannabee’, the Spice Girls earned #30m.

Halliwell’s personal fortune is estimated to be up to #13m. Her PR spokesman, Matthew Freud, denied she stood to lose millions as a result of her decision.

Murrell said industry accountants were waiting to see which firm would lure her away from Deloittes as well as whether the Spice Girls would survive as a quartet.