Latest accounting merger with a difference

Press, 15 August 1984, Page 35

Latest accounting merger with a difference

The latest in a series of mergers by some of New Zealand’s larger accountancy practices with well known international firms is the association of Lawrence Anderson Buddle with Arthur Andersen and Company. The appointment of Lawrence Anderson Buddle as Arthur Andersen’s New Zealand sole representative is unique, because LAB will continue practising under its own name, and control still rests with New Zealanders. According to LAB’s chairman, Mr Tony Anderson, of Dunedin, the association will bring very real benefits for local clients and New Zealand businesses generally. “This move is a recognition that as a trading nation we are dependent on international commerce for our economic future. It will enable us to provide the best of international accounting services for both local and overseas clients and to benefit from Arthur Andersen and Company’s international leadership, especially in the fields of computer applications to management and professional training and standards.

However, we have deliberately chosen to emphasise our commitment to New Zealand and our over-all corporate philosophy by continuing to practise under our established New Zealand name.” Lawrence Anderson Buddle has five offices throughout New Zealand — in the four main centres and in Hamilton. Although a full range of modern accountancy services is provided, the firm places special emphasis on audit and taxation work, farm management, computer services, and total management assistance for small businesses. Arthur Andersen is one of the three largest accountancy practices in the world, with offices in 45 countries. It was the first international accounting firm to publish its accounts and have them audited. Lawrence Anderson Buddle was established as a New Zealand-wide firm by two major structural mergers of strategically located practices of chartered accountants. In April, 1980, Buddle and Company, of Auckland, Cook and Company, of Wellington, Law-

rence Godfrey and Company, of Christchurch, and Anderson and Company, of Dunedin, merged, and in June last year Robinson Taylor Sommerville Gardener merged in.

The name Arthur Andersen can be traced back to the opening of Andersen Delaney and Company, in Chicago in 1915. Today Arthur Andersen is a world-wide partnership, with all partners sharing in the world-wide income. The firm’s major clients include: International Telephone and Telegraph, Colgate Palmolive, Abbott Laboratories, Getty Oil Company, Texaco, Hilton and Sheraton Hotels, Olivetti, Fiat, BHP, March McLewan, Commodore Computers, Prime Computers, Myer, Levi Strauss, London Transport, MGM Films, and Elton John (National Football Club). Arthur Andersen has apS" 1 a Public Review which reviews the performances of offices, and services provided to clients. This board comprises prominent international figures, including James Dow Edwards, Professor of Accounting at the Univer-

sity of Georgia, Edward Heath, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Newton Nimmo (chairman), a prominent Chicago lawyer, , George Romney,former member of President Nixon’s cabinet, and Randolph Tower, former Commissioner of the United States Internal Revenue Service. The moves leading up to the new association can be traced to the merger of one of Lawrence Anderson Buddle’s associated United Kingdom practices with Arthur Andersen’s United Kingdom office. The ongoing interface between LAB personalities and those of Andersen’s led to increasingly closer ties. LAB has since chosen to adopt many Arthur Andersen methods, especially for training, and in audit and tax work. A staff exchange scheme has been operating for some time. Recent joint activities include a commentary on C.E.R. for clients and othe. This booklet was prepared with the assistance of Sir Lawrence Stevens, a prominent New Zealand industrialist who was a member of the C.E.R. negotiating team.