Andersen Global, a professional services firm cobbled together from the remains of the collapsed accounting giant Arthur Andersen, is on track to generate a 19% increase in revenue this year.
The consultancy, created by former partners of Arthur Andersen, expects revenue to exceed $1.9 billion this year, Chief Executive Officer Mark Vorsatz said in an interview. That compares with the $1.6 billion the company generated for all of 2022.
Results have been buoyed by an international growth spree, including efforts to improve the company’s presence in Africa in recent years, Vorsatz said. The company now has offices in almost four dozen countries across the continent.
“Up until four years ago, we were just in Nigeria and Kenya,” Vorsatz said. “We’ve built a very significant platform in a relatively short time.”
The Andersen moniker was sullied in 2002 by charges of document shredding and obstructing a Justice Department investigation into Enron’s accounting, which prompted hundreds of clients and partners to defect. The effects of the scandal can still be seen today: U.S. lawmakers passed the landmark law known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which tightened regulations for auditing companies.
In the aftermath of the scandal, Vorsatz was one of 23 former Arthur Andersen partners that set up a firm of U.S. tax consultants known as Wealth & Tax Advisory Services LLP. In 2014, the firm bought the rights to use the Andersen name.
Vorsatz has long taken issue with those who say the Arthur Andersen name is symbolic of accounting fraud. The firm’s conviction, he notes, was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005.
“The Andersen brand has had an extraordinary impact on our growth, our ability to attract quality clients and to recruit people,” Vorsatz said.
Africa opportunity
These days, Andersen Global is an association of legally separate firms from all over the world that employ tax and legal professionals alike. Initially, these independent companies start out as “collaborating” firms before they become full members that can take part in the company’s profit-sharing system.
The company now has 14,000 of these professionals worldwide. About 11% of them work in firms across Africa.
The company sees an opportunity to help government officials attract private capital and form new public-private partnerships, Vorsatz said. These tie-ups allow governments to tap consortiums of private companies that, in turn, raise money and design, build and operate infrastructure projects.
The company has a presence in Guinea, which is China’s biggest bauxite supplier, as well as Nigeria and South Africa, the continent’s biggest economies. It also works with firms in Chad, a minor oil producer and Gabon, the second-smallest member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
“We’ve gone into big countries, we’ve gone into small countries,” Vorsatz said. “Africa affords us that opportunity.”
— With assistance from Michael Kapoor
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