安永拒绝TPG拆分计划，E记某地宣布裁员！|英国_新浪财经

安永拒绝TPG拆分计划

根据安永近日发给合伙人的一份声明，安永拒绝了美国私募股权集团TPG提出的收购其咨询部门的股份的建议。

TPG于7月底致信安永，概述了其将咨询部门与审计业务分离的债务和股权交易计划。

TPG的提议试图规避导致安永此前分拆计划失败的一些症结。

TPG告诉安永，他们对审计业务中保留更多的税务实践持开放态度。一些美国合伙人曾反对将大部分税务业务作为咨询部门的一部分剥离。

这家私募股权集团还表示，他们的计划比安永此前的分拆计划提供了更大的确定性，因为它不受公开市场波动的影响。

TPG补充称，其提案将减少合伙人现有股份的稀释，因为私人交易将使其能够以咨询业务的价值借入更多的资金。

对于安永方面的拒绝，TPG拒绝置评。

安永裁员警告英国员工薪酬过高

安永已告知英国员工，因为公司面临成本上升和艰难的经济前景，预计今年加薪幅度将低于去年，并正在启动一轮小规模裁员。

据知情人士透露，这家拥有约18,500名员工的四大公司英国业务的领导本周也通知员工，奖金池将比去年减少，并且奖金将分给更有限的群体。

据悉，安永英国将金融服务咨询业务中的5%以上员工(约2,300人)，为业务转型和风险管理提供建议的团队将裁员150人。

本次安永英国裁员的严重程度远低于安永美国公司。安永美国公司4月宣布，将裁员3,000人，占员工总数的5%，理由是“产能过剩”

在2020年新冠肺炎疫情开始后，安永在2021年和2022年初实现了大幅增长，并在公司寻求如何应对冠状病毒危机带来的挑战的建议时迅速招聘。

在截至2022年6月的财政年度，安永英国合伙人的平均薪酬达到了创纪录的80.3万英镑，而随着对顾问的需求飙升，普通员工的奖金增加了一半以上，共计达到1.1亿英镑。

加薪幅度降低和奖金减少的决定将影响员工。而拥有和经营企业的合伙人从利润中获得报酬。

过去一年，咨询集团受到了成本上升和大公司对其许多服务需求降温的打击。

普华永道在6月份告诉其25,000名英国员工，由于“具有挑战性”的市场条件，如果今年不好转，预计加薪和奖金将减少。

另一个增长放缓的迹象是，安永已要求约200名将于下月加入其咨询业务的毕业生考虑推迟一年开始工作，这样公司就可以“延期付款”。一位接近安永的人士强调，推迟开始日期是可选的。

该人士补充道，强制延期只会影响安永帕台农公司战略部门的约30名毕业生入职。在截至2022年6月的一年种，该公司招募了近1,500名毕业生。

安永英国老板Hywel Ball在4月份告诉合伙人，公司将在截至2023年6月的财政年度实现“强劲的两位数”收入增长。据一位知情人士透露，合伙人的平均薪酬通常在10月或11月与公司的年度业绩一起公布，但预计今年会更低。

据知情人士透露，过去一年，安永一直在努力削减与招聘、内部活动差旅、培训和员工圣诞派对相关的费用。

今年4月，英国合伙人被告知要为此前分拆计划失败的新一轮成本削减做准备。

“安永在英国的金融服务咨询业务已采取措施，使当前的资源需求与市场需求保持一致。遗憾的是，该部门的一群员工现在正在接受裁员咨询程序，”该公司补充道。

工作人员被告知，裁员和薪酬决定与分拆计划失败无关。

原英文报道如下：

EY rejects TPG plan to break up big four firm

New York | London | EY has rejected a proposal from US private equity group TPG to break up the big four firm and take a stake in its consulting business, according to a statement sent to partners on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).

TPG wrote to EY in late July outlining its plan for a debt-and-equity deal to separate its consulting arm from the audit business. The pitch came just months after the collapse of EY’s own attempt to spin off the consulting business and seek a $US100 billion ($156 billion) enterprise value for it in a stock market listing.

TheFinancial Times on Tuesday revealed the details of the approach, which offered to revive the break-up plan, codenamed Project Everest, in a revised form.

“We frequently receive inquiries from private equity firms and other investors expressing interest in parts of EY businesses. This was the case before Everest and will continue into the future,” partners were told in a note from global chairman and chief executive Carmine Di Sibio.

“The TPG approach was a preliminary expression of interest and there has not been further engagement. We are not actively engaging in any transactions,” Mr Di Sibio noted.

TPG’s approach comes as EY attempts to select a replacement for Mr Di Sibio, the driving force behind Everest. After the project unravelled in April, he said he would retire in June next year.

It would be difficult for the firm to commit to pursuing a deal before his successor is chosen, insiders say. Any break-up would also need the backing ofEY’s biggest national firms, which are separately owned by the partners in each country. The US leadership opposed Everest in its original form.

A break-up of the firm would represent the biggestoverhaul in the accounting profession since the collapse of the US energy company Enron, which put its auditor Arthur Andersen out of business and led other big firms to split off their advisory arms two decades ago.

Proponents of Everest argued that it would allow both sides of EY to grow faster, freed from conflict of interest rules put in place after Enron that prevent firms from selling consulting services to their audit clients.

TPG’s proposal attempted to sidestep some of the sticking points that contributed to Everest’s failure.

It told EY that it was open to a larger portion of the tax practice being retained within the audit business. Some US partners had objected to the majority of the tax business being spun off as part of the consulting arm.

The private equity group had also said that its plan offered greater certainty than Everest because it was not subject to the volatility of public markets.

It had added that its proposal would involve less dilution of partners’ existing stakes because a private transaction would enable it to borrow more heavily against the value of the consulting business.

TPG declined to comment.

EY warns UK staff over pay as it trims jobs

EY has told staff in the UK to expect less generous pay rises than last year and is launching a small round of redundancies as it faces rising costs and a difficult economic outlook.

Leaders at the Big Four firm’s British business, which employs about 18,500 people, also informed staff this week that bonus pools would be smaller than last year and would be split among a more limited group, according to people familiar with the matter.

Bonus pools for some teams would be cut by more than half this year, the people said.

The firm will axe more than 5 per cent of its roughly 2,300-strong financial services consulting practice, with 150 jobs set to be cut in teams that advise on business transformation and risk management.

The redundancies are far less severe than those seen at EY US, which announced in April that it would cut 3,000 jobs, or 5 per cent of its total workforce, citing “overcapacity”.

After an initial downturn at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, EY and the wider professional services sector enjoyed bumper growth in 2021 and early 2022 and hired rapidly as companies sought advice on how to deal with challenges unleashed by the coronavirus crisis.

EY’s UK partners were paid a record average of £803,000 in the financial year ended June 2022, while bonuses for rank-and-file staff were raised by more than half to £110mn as demand for consultants soared.

The decision to offer smaller pay rises and bonus pools will affect employees. Partners, who own and run the business, are paid out of the profits.

Advisory groups have been hit by rising costs and a cooling of demand from big companies for many of their services over the past year.

PwC told its 25,000 UK staff in June to expect smaller pay rises and bonuses if not freezes this year because of “challenging” market conditions.

In a further sign of slowing growth, EY has asked about 200 graduates due to join its consulting business next month to consider delaying their start by a year in return for a “deferral payment”. A person close to the firm stressed that putting back the start date would be optional and that there had been only “limited” uptake.

Mandatory deferrals would affect only about 30 graduates in EY-Parthenon, the firm’s strategy division, the person added. The firm recruited almost 1,500 graduates and school-leavers in the 12 months to June 2022.

EY’s UK boss Hywel Ball told partners in April that the firm would report “strong double-digit” revenue growth for the financial year ended June 2023. Average partner pay is normally reported in October or November alongside the firm’s annual results but is expected to be lower this year, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

In the past year, EY has been battling to cut expenses associated with hiring, travel for internal events, training and staff Christmas parties, according to people familiar with the matter.

UK partners were told in April to prepare for fresh cost-cutting following the collapse of Project Everest, a plan to split its audit and consulting divisions globally.

EY said in a statement that it “continues to perform strongly” and that “the vast majority of our people will receive an annual pay rise and variable bonus payment this year”.

“EY’s UK financial services consulting practice has taken measures to align current resourcing requirements with market demand. Regrettably, a group of employees in this part of the business are now subject to a redundancy consultation process,” it added.

Staff were told that the redundancies and remuneration decisions were not related to Project Everest.