| Pearse Farrell in person |
Issue: 11 / 2004 |
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| Profile: Farrell Grant Sparks, Ireland's 'most efficient accountancy firm' |
Issue: 11 / 2004 |
| This year, the annual FINANCE Accountancy Survey calculated the most efficient accountancy firm in Ireland. With each of its staff members generating income of €127,273, Farrell Grant Sparks (FGS) emerged as the most efficient firm. Joint managing partner Pearse Farrell details the secrets of this success. |
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| The CFA publishes code of ethical standards for asset managers |
Issue: 11 / 2004 |
| In an effort to boost investor protection, the CFA Institute has put together an asset manager code of professional conduct. The code sets forth global ethical and professional standards for firms managing assets as separate accounts, or pooled funds. |
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| The road to becoming an actuary is long but rewarding |
Issue: 11 / 2004 |
| Becoming an actuary isn’t easy, writes Duncan Robertson, and it takes on average seven years to qualify. Following this, qualified actuaries are expected to demonstrate Continuous Professional Development (CFD), and to continue their education. |
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| The role of CESR in enforcing accounting standards |
Issue: 11 / 2004 |
| The new IFRS accounting standards must be in use by 2005 but some companies have paid little attention so far to their implementation while many others are in the early stages of planning for transition. Brendan Sheridan looks at the key role of the Committee of European Securities Regulators in ensuring that throughout Europe enforcement processes are in place to ensure IFRS standards are appropriately implemented in 2005. |
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| The success of the Irish film industry depends on innovative financing and improving services |
Issue: 11 / 2004 |
| Ireland’s film industry has enjoyed considerable success in recent years, but according to Lucy Conran, who was involved in the financing of the forthcoming ‘Phantom of the Opera’, the sector must improve its service offering and make innovative use of financing options if it is to continue prospering. |
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| Treasurers seek out structured products |
Issue: 11 / 2004 |
| Structured derivatives, conditional forward contracts, and callable range accruals are all products now used regularly by Ireland’s corporate treasurers to hedge against risk. |
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| What do we want? We want --- |
Issue: 11 / 2004 |
| An analysis of advice to the Minister for Finance in the framing of Finance Bill 2005 shows widespread support for increasing the standard rate tax band and tax credits and increasing the exemption limit for PRSI and health levies. These is also cross-sectional support for credits for child care for working parents, and there is a widespread focus on Local Authority charges and rates. |
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| Who’s who in Finance: Donal Corbett, Director, First Active plc/Ulster Bank |
Issue: 11 / 2004 |
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| Accountancy firms’ fee income growth eases, but IFRS boost expected |
Issue: 10 / 2004 |
| Ireland’s main accountancy firms notched up impressive gains in business during 2004, with overall fee income up 10.9 per cent at €636.4 million. However, in light of the accelerating pace of the economic recovery, growth was perhaps not as robust as expected, coming in under the 15 per cent level recorded last year. But while an improving economy and upbeat projections for next year point to expectations of healthy industry potential going forward, most firms have identified the implementation of IFRS in 2005, as among the most significant factors likely to affect business, with 16 of the 17 surveyed by FINANCE predicting an increase in fee income arising from the new rules. |
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| Accounting - a dynamic field |
Issue: 10 / 2004 |
| There is a whole new world of opportunities and possibilities awaiting accountants, writes Hilarie Geary. |
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| Alternative Investments - can fine wine continue to out-perform ? |
Issue: 10 / 2004 |
| Fine wine is attracting growing interest as an alternative investment thanks to disillusionment with traditional asset classes such as equities, writes James Miles, and some headline grabbing vintages from the world’s leading wine regions in recent years, particularly Bordeaux 2000 and 2003. |
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| Cardinal to launch active value fund |
Issue: 10 / 2004 |
| Cardinal Asset Management, the Dublin and London alternative asset investment firm, is to launch and develop an active value hedge fund capability. |
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| Deal value to exceed 2003 |
Issue: 10 / 2004 |
| The total value of deals in 2004 will be higher than the €7.4 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) recorded in 2003, according to Joe Devine, a director with corporate finance firm Ion Equity. |
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| Fee income and productivity jumps in accountancy |
Issue: 10 / 2004 |
| KPMG has beaten PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to the top spot to become Ireland’s largest accountancy firm in terms of fee income – but only by a whisker, according to the 2004 FINANCE survey of the industry, which shows growth amongst the 'Big 4' is up 11 per cent on 2003, and that Farrell Grant Sparks is the most efficient accountancy firm in Ireland, in a year when productivity gains of up to 23 per cent were recorded. |
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