Adenusi & Company - Press Release

ADENUSI & CO. (Chartered Accountants) Announces Expanded Global Resources for Its Clients through Membership in IGAF Polaris

ADENUSI & CO. is pleased to announce that the firm now has significant new global resources to offer its clients through its membership in IGAF Polaris, the powerful new global accounting association that metamorphosed from the merger of Polaris International, Fid union, and IGAF Worldwide.

The independent member firms of the merged IGAF Polaris will have combined annual revenue of over US$1.82 billion, with 2,400 partners, 16,300 employees, and 843 offices in 89 countries around the globe. This makes the combined group one of the largest associations of independent accounting firms in the world. The substantial increase in size for the merged association will further enhance ADENUSI & CO’s ability to provide expertise and resources to meet growing clients’ needs both internationally and domestically.
We have always demonstrated our zest for quality value added service delivery of international standard to our clients. This has become our hallmark and has even been acknowledged by the global Chief Executive Officer of IGAF Polaris in his recent remark on our membership of theAassociation.

“We are pleased and proud to have ADENUSI &CO as one of our member firms in Nigeria. Many of IGAF Worldwide member firms and their clients have relied on ADENUSI & CO’s expertise and quality service over the years, and we eagerly anticipate the contributions they will make on a global scale to the new, much larger association. In turn, I know that ADENUSI & CO will benefit from the significant additional expertise and resources being extended to their clients from their peer member firms around the globe.” - Kevin Mead, CEO IGAF Polaris.

IGAF Polaris will maintain a regional governance structure, with Boards of Directors providing oversight for each of the four regions of Asia Pacific, Latin America & Caribbean, Europe, Middle East & Africa and North America. A World Board of Directors comprised of members of the Regional Boards, plus a World Chairman will provide global guidance and governance. The World headquarters office for IGAF Polaris will be in Miami, Florida, USA, with regional offices to be located in Europe, the Americas, and Asia Pacific.

“We consider this new development as great opportunity to further do our clients proud in terms of qualitative service delivery they stand to enjoy from us. Also, for easy accessibility, we have recently relocated our Abuja Office to a more centralized location at City Plaza Ahmadu Bello Way Garki Area 11 Abuja. We are really in for the upliftment of our practice and service delivery to the next level. This strategic move coupled with expansion of Global Resources for our Clients through membership of IGAF Polaris is a significant step toward achieving our vision which is to be a unique financial service provider which is tuned towards meeting and surpassing Clients’ expectations”, said ADENUSI & CO Chairman, Alhaji R.O. Adenusi.

In his own remarks, Ahmed Tunde Adenusi Partner/Chief Operating Officer assured present and potential clients that expertise of over 2,400 partners and 16,300 employees is now at the firm’s clients disposal. This unparallel expanded resources will drive the firm on to achieve its mission which is to continue to add value to clients’ businesses by rendering unique financial services of international standard thereby creating value for all stakeholders.

We are at home with standards and ethics of our profession. These we promise to always put to bear in providing the much needed satisfaction of our clients in terms of service delivery no matter the change in our status and level.

It is always a new dawn in ADENUSI & CO and we therefore welcome all our clients to a new and improved dimension and scope in service delivery.

EU Council statement on the IASB

On 11 July the EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) issued a statement on the funding and governance of the IASB. The statement highlighted the possibility of some public funding when the IASB’s financing system is reviewed in 2007, but observed that the primary contributors should be those stakeholders benefiting from the use of IFRS. It was noted that the IASB’s governance structure should be strengthened on account of the Board’s increasing public interest role. Finally, it was also noted that those companies that in the EU are currently financing the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) should continue to do so (see note below). The European Commission is set to monitor and report regularly to the Council on progress on these and other issues starting from autumn 2006.

EFRAG – Monitoring Group created

On 17 July the European Commission announced the establishment of a Standards Advice Review Group with the mandate to reflect on the endorsement advice submitted by EFRAG (to the Commission) with a view to assessing whether its content is well-balanced and objective. The advice from the Group will be expected within three weeks from the receipt of an EFRAG opinion and will be posted on the Commission's website. The Group will be composed of independent experts and high level representatives from National Standard setters and the Commission is set to publish in due course a call for applications for membership.

New agreement on comitology

The European Parliament, the European Commission and the EU Council reached on 6 July a new Inter-Institutional compromise on the comitology procedure for implementing EU Directives. As may be recalled, comitology is a procedure through which the Commission adopts implementing measures for EU Directives and Regulations in agreement with a Committee consisting of Member State representatives (chaired by the Commission). The use of comitology has often been controversial for the manner in which implementing decisions are taken without full and equal involvement of the EU co-legislators, i.e. the European Parliament and the Council. However, in recent years, the role of the Parliament has been expanded in a number of areas. Under the new agreement, the Parliament will, for the first time, have a right to block comitology measures, if voted by an absolute majority of MEPs (i.e. 367 votes). In such cases, the Parliament will provide an explanation on the reasons for rejecting a comitology decision and the Commission will need to present a new comitology decision to the Parliament or a new legislative act. These new powers effectively situate the Parliament and the EU Council on an equal footing for all comitology procedures and reinforce the Parliament’s role as co-legislator.

SMEs – Access to finance

The European Commission published on 30 June a Communication on financing for SMEs, specifically concerning risk capital and other private funding instruments. According to the Commission, risk capital constitutes the best funding alternative for rapidly-growing SMEs; however, this potential is hindered by the fragmentation of the European risk capital markets and the insufficient use of public-private partnerships, among other factors. The Communication calls for actions at EU and Member State level with three main objectives: encouraging traditional bank financing for innovative enterprises, enhancing the EU contribution to risk capital for financing early-stage investments and improving the overall performance of EU financial systems.

The Commission intends to boost the effectiveness of the EU's two main instruments for early-stage SME financing - the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and the structural funds instruments, in particular the Joint European Resources for Micro and Medium Enterprises (JEREMIE) - by increasing their prominence and capital resources, thus enabling them to be used in support of side-funds from private investors. The European Association of craft, small and medium-sizes enterprises (UEAPME) welcomed the Commission’s proposals; however, it was regretted that the Commission focused mainly on start-up businesses, rather than all SMEs.

Internal Market Scoreboard

1.9% of Internal Market Directives, for which the implementation deadline has passed, have not been implemented into nation law, according the Commission’s Scoreboard published on 18 July. The figure represents an increase of 0.3% from the 2005 results. On average, the “new” Member States from have performed better than the “old” ones in achieving timely transposition, with Denmark, Cyprus, Slovenia and the UK boasting the lowest deficits, whilst Luxembourg, Italy, Greece and Portugal showing the highest backlogs.

Conservative Party in the EU Parliament

There has been a strong reaction from the European People’s Party and European Democrats (EPP-ED) to David Cameron’s remarks on the aim to withdraw the Conservative Party from the EPP-ED to form a new political alliance by 2009. EPP-ED Chairman, Hans-Gert Poettering (Germany) commented that Cameron’s statement “does not recognise the substantial and positive contribution by a large majority of Conservative MEPs within the EPP-ED Group”. According to the Group’s press release, the UK Conservative Party remains a member “in letter but not in spirit”, as its membership is “based on the fact that the leadership of the Conservative Party in London has not succeeded in finding other parties to co-operate with in the European Parliament.”

European investment funds

The European Commission held on 19 July an open hearing to discuss the reports on European investment funds prepared by three expert groups of industry representatives (published on 4 July). The aim of the exercise was to receive input from the financial services industry on how to achieve an EU framework that boosts the competitiveness and effectiveness of venture capital funds whilst ensuring adequate risk management and guarantees to the stability of the financial system. The views will be fed into a White Paper on investment funds, which the Commission is expected publish in November 2006.

The reports focused on three aspects of the fund industry: retail investment funds, hedge funds and private equity. During the open hearing, industry representatives highlighted the need to remove barriers to cross-border activities, especially calling for the mutual recognition of national laws and fund structures, as well as the easing of requirements concerning the location of the fund management. European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy stressed –in contrast to the industry report – that hedge funds could not expect access to the retail market while other products in this area are regulated (on issues such as risk, asset valuation and management). The Commissioner also noted that Member States control most of the tax and regulatory burdens that currently exist in the private equity industry.

Credit Rating Agencies – CESR Consultation

The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) published on 6 July a questionnaire on the application of Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) codes of practice. CESR had earlier this year advised the European Commission not to regulate CRAs for the time being, but rather to review CRAs’ compliance with the IOSCO (International Organisation of Securities Commission) Code of Conduct. As part of this exercise, the questionnaire seeks to gather views from market participants and CESR intends to publish a report by the end of October. The deadline for responses is 15 August.

NYSE-Euronext merger

Commissioner Roel Campos from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) met with European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy in Brussels on 18 July. Concerning the proposed merger between the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Euronext, the SEC Commissioner commented that the merger would not lead to an imposition of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on American companies quoted in Euronext, as some stakeholders feared. At a seminar on 5 July, European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy had also assured that European regulation –and European regulators – would prevail for companies quoted in Europe in case of a merger. The proposed acquisition of Euronext by the NYSE would be worth $10 billion and the deal could be approved by shareholders of the European exchange in early 2007.

Key Dates

10-11 September Asia-Europe (ASEM) Summit (Helsinki)

13 September Meeting of the Auditor Liability Forum (Brussels)

14 September CIPFA European meeting at FEE and ICAEW reception (Brussels)

16-20 September International Group of Accounting Firms (IGAF) World Meeting (Berlin)

21-22 September Finnish Presidency conference: “The challenges of globalisation for the knowledge based economy” (Helsinki)

27-29 September Joint ICAEW-CIOT-CFE conference and events (London)

28 September European Commissioner for Taxation (László Kovács, Hungary) at ICAEW