By Divya Chowdhury and Nishara Karuvalli Pathikkal
(Reuters) – EY Global expects favourable market conditions by the end of this year or early 2024 to list its consulting and a part of the tax business if a proposed split of its accounting and consultancy arms is approved, a company official said on Tuesday.
“(The split) will involve a debt raise, and a form of capital transaction – both of those are influenced by market conditions,” said Andy Baldwin, global managing partner-client service at EY.
EY Global was on track to put the proposed split to a partner vote in March or April, Baldwin told the Reuters Global Markets Forum (GMF) on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos.
In September 2022, the “Big Four” auditor proposed splitting itself into separate accounting and consultancy businesses to ease regulatory concerns and help pay rising technology bills in what would mark the biggest shake-up in the sector in more than two decades.
The vote, which will take place in around 77 countries, is “probably one of the most complex in corporate history”, Baldwin said. “We’re effectively doing a demerger.”
He also said that the exchanges to list the business were still under consideration, adding that it was expected to be a “$25 billion plus start-up from the get go”.
(Reporting by Divya Chowdhury in Davos, Savio Shetty in Mumbai and Anisha Sircar in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Macfie)
