Price Waterhouse Coopers shuts down business in Malawi
Renowned and international business giant, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) have closed their Malawian business effective 1 July 2021.
The global business leader, PwC, a privately held company, has sold the Malawian business to a local audit company, Audit Consult Ltd at a purchase amount of US$100,000 (approx. K95 million).
The Company offers business advisory services such as auditing, accounting, taxation, strategy management, and human resource consulting services. PwC serves aerospace, defence, automotive, energy, government, hospitality, insurance, banking, consumer markets, health care, and transportation industries worldwide.
According to the sale agreement that we have seen, the disposal of the Malawian Business is a sale of an enterprise as a ‘going concern’.
“The Malawi Business will be an income earning activity on the effective date, the assets, which are necessary for carrying on such Malawi Business are being disposed of by PwC to the purchaser in terms of this Agreement,” reads a statement of the sale agreement in part.
The agreement was signed by Andrew Vera and Ranwell Mbene on behalf of PwC and Isaac Kayira on behalf of Audit Consult with Lowani Munkhondia as a witness.
Almost half of the 75 strong staff member count at PwC have lost their jobs as a result of the closure and the company has only maintained a few members to finalize servicing on-going clients, especially international clients.
Insiders said the decision to close the Malawi business was reached at from the regional head office in South Africa and this may affect other countries like PwC Zimbabwe.
Mbene who was PwC Senior Partner for the Malawi business and a few other staff members are said to have been taken aboard by the new owners, Audit Consult which is also a Malawian correspondent firm of world-renowned audit firm RSM International.
PwC touts itself as one of the leading professional services networks in the world with presence in 155 countries and more than 284,000 people helping organizations and individuals creating value they are looking for by delivering quality in Assurance, Tax and Advisory services.
In the financial year 2020, PwC firms provided services to 84% of the Global Fortune 500 companies and more than 100,000 entrepreneurial and private businesses and 63,053 people joined PwC firms around the world. PwC’s revenues were US$43 billion for the year ending 30 June 2020.
Audit Consult is one of the top locally grown audit firms in Malawi that provides audit services and the coming in of PwC into Audit Consult will increase the local audit firm growth.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a multinational professional services network of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. PwC ranks as the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Deloitte, EY and KPMG.
PwC firms operate in 157 countries, 742 locations, with 284,000 people. As of 2019, 26% of the workforce worked in the Americas, 26% in Asia, 32% in Western Europe and 5% in Middle East and Africa.
The company’s global revenues were $42.4 billion in FY 2019, of which $17.4 billion was generated by its Assurance practice, $10.7 billion by its Tax and Legal practice and $14.4 billion by its Advisory practice.
The firm in its present form was created in 1998 by a merger between two accounting firms: Coopers & Lybrand, and Price Waterhouse.
Both firms had histories dating back to the 19th century. The trading name was shortened to PwC (on-logo writing pwc) in September 2010 as part of a rebranding effort.
PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited is a co-ordinating entity for the global network of firms and manages the global brand, and develops policies and initiatives, to create a common and coordinated approach in areas such as risk, quality, and strategy. It does not provide services to clients.
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