DThe auditing and consulting company EY has stopped its planned split. This was announced by the group formerly known as Ernst & Young on Tuesday. It was actually planned that the group’s 13,000 partners should vote in April on the separation of the lucrative consulting business. It should then be taken to the stock exchange. As late as mid-February, a member of the company’s management told the Reuters news agency that “huge approval” was expected for “Project Everest”. However, there was internal resistance. Right from the start, the partners in the important US market apparently disagreed as to which parts of the tax consultancy business should remain in the auditing division to be spun off.
With the spin-off announced in September, London-based EY wanted to meet the demands of many regulators, who increasingly fear conflicts of interest when auditors also advise the companies they audit. The partners involved in EY received millions in proceeds from the process. With its 365,000 employees and a turnover of 45.4 billion dollars (FY 2021/22), EY belongs to the “Big Four” of the auditing companies, along with KPMG, Deloitte and PwC, which almost completely share the audit of large, international companies.
The split-up plan, with which EY wanted to lead the way as a pioneer among the four international testing giants, became known in spring 2022. When EY first publicly confirmed the transaction, dubbed “Project Everest”, in September, the international partners were expected to vote on the plan for late 2022 or early 2023. However, the complexity of the undertaking delayed the process. Most recently, voting should take place in April or May.