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This week Big4 brings you a focused news magazine on Ernst and Young. We cover a report that
most Asian Oil & Gas deals in 2011 are outbound, an analysis that nearly half of the world's
growth over the next three years from rapid growth markets. Also E&Y adds four advisors
to Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services practice; the firm finds that cleantech investment
remain steady at $4.9 billion, that Australian financial institutions are under FATCA pressure
and E&Y's findings that U.S. IPO Confidence Returns for 2012. Each week Big 4 covers
key news, events, happenings, opinions and blogs relating to all the Big Four accounting
and consulting firms. You can view this video our website and on Big4's channel on Youtube.
Please contact us at big4@big4.com or (866) 690-5050 for advertising on this video or
specially featuring your news. Also, place your job opportunities on the Big Four Job
Board. So, let's start with this week's round-up of the top news! Asian countries and Australia
showed momentum for outbound investments in their attempt to provide security of energy
supplies in lieu of increasing domestic energy demand in 2011. Oilfield services sector transactions
continued their momentum in this highly fragmented subsector, although the magnitude of deals
was relatively smaller. Selective sovereign wealth funds and private equity remained focused
on further building up their service portfolios. However, 1,322 oil and gas transactions were announced
in 2011 globally, an increase of more than 5% compared to 1,258 in 2010, proving that
this remains one of the most resilient global sectors for mergers and acquisitions. The
most recent Rapid-Growth Markets Forecast (RGMF), shows those markets will continue
to contribute nearly half of the world's growth over the next three years. There are several
noteworthy benchmarks here including the fact that rising trade links will continue to support
foreign direct investment (FDI) from Asia and Latin America to Africa and other RGMs,
an emerging Asia with rising middle class will lead the growth for all RGMs and demand
in metal from China and other Asia-Pacific economies will push prices high Ernst and
Young's Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services (FIDS) practice was recently expanded to meet
growing demand for, and bolster its depth in, eDiscovery and fact-finding services. Last
year, Ernst & Young began expanding its focus on the eDiscovery marketplace in the US with
the acquisition of Cataphora Legal, a division of Cataphora, Inc., a leader in the management
and interpretation of digital communications. As a result, Cataphora Legal's senior leadership
team, including Jonathan Nystrom, Executive Vice President in Washington, DC, and Richard
Oehrle, Ph.D, Chief Linguist in San Jose, CA, joined Ernst & Young LLP's FIDS practice
as an Executive Director and Senior Manager, respectively. Seventeen additional members
of the Cataphora Legal team also joined Ernst & Young LLP.
And here are the latest jobs from the Big4 Job Board [click], see the site for more details.
According to an Ernst & Young LLP analysis based on data from Dow Jones VentureSource,
The Energy/Electricity Generation segment led Cleantech investment in 2011 with $1.5
billion raised through a total of 71 rounds, representing a 5% decrease in dollars invested
from 2010. The Solar sub-segment received the lion's share of capital in Q4 2011 with
$284.5 million, accounting for 91% of the sector's total investment of $312.9 million.
The top Solar deal for this quarter was completed by Stion Corp., a San Jose-based a manufacturer
of high-efficiency, thin-film solar panels, which raised $130.0 million. The draft Foreign
Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) regulations by the US Treasury and IRS will add to the
burden of a raft of other regulatory changes for Australian financial institutions. According
to Ernst & Young's Oceania Banking and Capital Markets leader, Paul Siviour, financial institutions
are left with little choice even though complying with the proposed regulations will require
significant levels of investment in the face of stronger economic headwinds. Siviour said
that to minimise the impact of the changes, Australian financial institutions should begin
preparing now to ensure they are able meet the July 2013 compliance date. The end of
3Q boasted a U.S. IPO pipeline full and primed for companies to go public in 4Q. Now, due
to recent gains in the stock market, both companies and investors are feeling more confident
about IPOs according to Ernst & Young's U.S. IPO Pipeline Analysis. In 2011, BCM IPOs were
almost nonexistent, except for the offerings of Imperial Holdings and private equity backed
BankUnited. However, there was a large list of new registrants who are still on file as
of 4Q. These registrants are mainly consumer finance and mortgage finance companies, such
as Enova International, Nationstar Mortgage, Home Loan Servicing Solutions, and Ally Financial.
This has been Melissa with your Big4 weekly news. I'll see you next time.