The 2002 International Tax Review survey of Latin America's top tax advisers revealed the effects of Andersen's demise on the tax landscape.
While PricewaterhouseCoopers held on to the top spots in Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela without poaching any significant groups from the fallen Andersen, the firm may have to watch out for Ernst & Young and Deloitte & Touche next year as both firms have leapt up the survey results this year, largely as a result of mergers with Andersen or hiring departing teams from the firm.
Deloitte & Touche came first in Argentina for both tax planning and transactional work and climbed to second place in Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela in either transactional or planning work. There is no underestimating the effect of the Andersen teams on these results.
Antonio Carlos de Abreu e Silva, IBM's head of tax in Brazil said: "I think Deloittes is better than PricewaterhouseCoopers right now in Brazil because they merged with Andersen. The result is a well-formed team."
Alejandro Ramallo, a tax director in the Argentine subsidiary of a multinational energy company gave a similar viewpoint for Argentina where while Ernst & Young officially merged with Andersen, a substantial team defected to Deloitte: "With this migration, I think Deloittes has a strong structure," he said. "Although it is very recent, I think they will probably rank in the top three in Argentina."
Ernst & Young demonstrated the importance of Andersen in Chile, where it merged with the defunct firm and won the top spots in both tax planning and transactional. Meanwhile its position in Mexico was raised as a result of Manuel Solano joining the firm from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Solano narrowly overtook PricewaterhouseCoopers rival Roberto del Toro to be voted as the leading tax adviser in the country. Clients including Proctor & Gamble followed Solano over to Ernst & Young.
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