Global consulting major Arthur Andersen (AA) is re-entering India, this time in partnership with International Business Advisors (IBA). Arthur Andersen was among the biggest audit and accountancy companies at one point in time, in the league of E&Y, DEloitte, KPMG and PwC. However, it had to wind up its operations globally after the Enron accounting scandal broke in 2000 in the US.
[File] Arthur Andersen restarted Indian operations from March 1 | AP
Arthur Andersen restarted Indian operations from March 1, and plans to expand to key geographies, IBA said in a statement. In India, its operations were headed by Bobby Parekh who later co-founded BMR advisors.
AA will offer its services across legal & tax, risk advisory, accountancy, transaction and notarial services and work across these countries with various institutions of all sizes including both public and private.
Its affiliation with IBA will help it re-start its presence in India and will provide a wider network to perform its services.
Stéphane Laffont-Réveilhac, Global Managing Partner of Arthur Andersen says “India is a high growth and priority market for Arthur Andersen and we keenly look forward to working with IBA in making significant strides in the accounting and consulting world. IBA's strong presence will surely help Arthur Andersen network re-build its reputation and business presence in India.”
IBA is a fairly young firm set-up in 2003 and is run and managed by ex-BIG 4 professionals—Kapil Nayyar, Nirav Maniar, Nimish Goel and Puneet Sharma. Each of them specialises in different service lines and the firm provides tax consulting & litigation, risk advisory, forensic investigations, corporate law and regulatory/legal services.
IBA has presence in three cities and employs over 100 people and has a relationship with numerous multinational and domestic companies in India spread across varied sectors including manufacturing, retail, e-commerce, IT/ITes and pharma. Correspondingly, AA has re-started with a relatively new set-up with operations in the US, Middle-East, India, Brazil, France, Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Indonesia and Nepal. Discussions are under way for setting up offices in China, Canada, Australia, Israel, Russia and a number of European countries.
