global
ISSUE 14

CHANGING
RHYTHMSFOR LATAMTRADE

AFTER 30 YEARSIS THE MERCOSUR
DEAL DELIVERING?

BOUNCE BACK BONANZA

HOW EFFECTIVE IS NEXTGEN EU FUNDING?

THE GREAT HANDOVEROUTSOURCING MORE POPULAR THAN EVERGROWING AND JOINING
THE RISE AND RISE OF M&A DEALSThe networkfor doingbusiness

2 UHY GLOBAL July 2022

WORD OF WELCOME

IN THIS ISSUE18UHYSERVICES
Delivering forour clients

4

FEATURE
Outsourcing on
the rise for third
party providers

19

SERVINGCLIENTS,SERVINGCOMMUNITIES8SERVICEFEATURE
New standards
for auditors

9

GLOBALNEWS

20

FEATURE
Have we reachedpeak M&A?

23
10

COGS &WHEELS
Lifelong learning

PERSPECTIVES
What has Mercosurachieved forSouth America?

14

CLIENT
STORYGlobal scale forhigh growth CFO

24

CLIENTSTORY
25 years ofcollaboration

26

FEATURE
Europe’s next
generation
recovery funding

16

PROFILE
Meet our CEO
Rhys Madoc

29

GLOBALUHY MEMBERS’
DIRECTORY

WORD OFWELCOME
Welcome to issue 14 of UHY
Global, the network’s twice
yearly business magazine. As
I near the completion of myfirst year as chairman of UHY
International, the global outlook
seems more uncertain than I
could ever have imagined.
We are all deeply concerned about
the heartbreaking situation in
Eastern Europe. UHY condemns
the assault on Ukraine and its
people and we stand with allother nations, organisations andcitizens who wish to see thequickest end to suffering anda peaceful resolution. We aregiving what assistance we canto our UHY member firm in Kyiv
and the network fully supports
global sanctions issued against
the Russian state and associatedentities and individuals.
Meanwhile, the rest of the worldis coming out of the pandemic
and I am optimistic that thelessons we have learned,
particularly around compassion,
will support nations and individuals
to work hard at recovery. In
Europe, the EU has made a EUR
800 billion fund available toits member countries and we
examine its potential impact inour feature, European Recovery
and Next Generation Funding.
Despite the struggles, there havebeen some exceptional successstories in the business world. 2021
set new records for the global
mergers and acquisitions (M&A)
market. Whether these highs canbe repeated in 2022 is something
we consider in our article, Have
We Reached Peak M&A?
Business outsourcing is anotherstrategy that is enjoying new

popularity – from payroll to IT andfrom secretarial to finance services,
this is now an important part ofour own accounting landscape.
Our feature, Outsourcing on
the March, considers the wider
benefits of giving back-office
responsibility to third parties.
Elsewhere in this issue, two
inspiring client stories celebrate
the relationships that drive UHY
member firms’ client engagements
including an entrepreneur who
has used UHY member firms inover 20 countries to enable global
scaling of her high-growth startup
businesses. In our All Around theWorld feature we acknowledge
a global phenomenon in the pop
music world – ABBA – who, in
2022, have brought an immersivehigh-tech concert experience
to London using computer
generated avatars to recreate
the thrill of a 1970s heyday gig
for their worldwide fanbase.
Thank you for engaging withus through UHY Global. I hope
you find some topics of interestand value. The magazine is alsoavailable to browse online atuhy.com/Global14 with additional
content, extended narratives anduseful links to source materials.
I wish you all continued successthis year and encourage you to
contact your local UHY partner
to find out more about how we
can help your business prosper.
Subarna Banerjee
Chairman, UHY International

ALL AROUND THE WORLDTHANK YOUFOR THE MUSICHOW A NEW VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE WILL SEE ABBA
MAINTAIN THE INTERNATIONAL POP CROWN

I

t has been more than 40 years
since global pop supergroup
ABBA released their last new
music, yet the announcementof a new record and ‘live’
experience has sent fans andindustry experts marvellingat the enduring appeal of
the Scandinavian band.

ABBA were formed in Sweden in 1972
by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus,
Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad.
In 1974 they won the Eurovision SongContest with Waterloo, and by 1982 they
had split. Their 1992 greatest hits record
is the second biggest-seller of all timein the UK with sales of 5.6m (coming
second only to Queen’s Greatest Hits).
The band’s latest album, Voyage, wasreleased in November 2021 and was theirhighest charting album ever (at number 2),
receiving more than 80,000 pre-orders
in just three days. This was despite amusical hiatus of nearly 40 years, during
which time the band turned down several
lucrative offers to record and appear.
However, in 1999, the musical Mamma
Mia! brought their music to a whole new
set of fans. By 2021 ABBA had become
one of the biggest-selling musical acts of alltime and fans were happy to take a chanceon tickets to see them even virtually.
ABBA Voyage, which opened in May
2022 (and will run until May 2023)
in a purpose-built 3,000-capacity arenain London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic
Park (now known as ABBA Arena),
promises to be an ‘immersive digitalconcert experience’.

Shutterstock.com/lbl/Shutterstock

The enterprise has been four years in
the making from visual effects company
Industrial Light and Magic – owned by Star
Wars creator George Lucas and purchasedby the Walt Disney Company in 2012 aspart of its acquisition of LucasFilm – andutilises performance capture techniques
to animate the dancing queens and kings,
who are now all in their seventies.
Björn Ulvaeus (who also co-composed
hit musicals Chess, Mamma Mia! andMamma Mia! Here We Go Again), is no
stranger to innovation. He set up Swedish
entertainment company Pophouse backin 2014, whose investments include alarge portfolio of properties including theworld’s largest gaming and digital culture
hub, Space, in Stockholm as well as

The musical Mamma
Mia! brought theirmusic to a whole
new set of fans.

Anders Hanser, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Stockholm’s ABBA Museum.
The company has also bought
podcast companies and recently
announced it is planning to move into
IP investments and music rights.
In a creative move that many musiciansof advancing years must wish they had
thought of first, the concerts will feature
the members of ABBA as virtual avatars(already coined ‘ABBAtars’), showing themas they appeared back in 1977. So far, theband will not appear live – in fact, in 2000
they reportedly declined an offer of GBP
1bn (over USD 1.24 bn) to reform. But theshows will feature a ten-piece live band(including British pop singer Little Boots)
who will perform seven nights a week.
It is not hard to see how ABBA will cover
their expenses. Tickets range from GBP 32(USD 39) standing only to GBP 327 (USD401) for a deluxe ‘dance booth’. Demandis huge. Resale tickets for the premiere
were reported to have been selling for up
to GBP 1,000 (USD 1,240). The show islikely only to further ABBA’s global appeal
and there have been hints that the show
could travel, though nothing has yet
been confirmed. Bloomberg reports that
the Swedish group, which has now soldalmost 400m records worldwide, has a
combined wealth in excess of USD 1bn.
And the ABBA Voyage experience looks
set to inflate that figure dramatically,
with some experts estimating it will makethe band millions in just a few months.
There is little doubt that such creativity,
imagination and technology has
the potential to change the way
we enjoy the legacy of our most
iconic musicians – forever. n

4 UHY GLOBAL July 2022

FEATURE – OUTSOURCING ON THE MARCHOUTSOURCINGON THE MARCHCOMPANIES ARE HANDING OVER MORE BACK-OFFICEPROCESSES AND SERVICES TO SPECIALIST OUTSOURCERS
AS THEY LOOK TO CUT COSTS AND DRIVE EFFICIENCY. BUT
CHOOSING THE RIGHT PARTNER IS THE KEY TO SUCCESSI

n 1998 the US Navy finallyclosed the dairy farm that had
been part of its operational
infrastructure, alongside aircraft
carriers and cruisers, since 1911.

The navy owned the land and a
250-strong herd of Holstein cattlein Maryland, across the Severn River
from its own Naval Academy.
Strange as it might seem, the US Navy
was in the farming business – the herd
provided fresh milk to the Academy mess.
The equivalent today might be Microsoft
owning an apple orchard to supply theoffice canteen. So, the navy bowed tothe inevitable and sold off the herd andland. It realised that one organisation
could not do everything, or at least notefficiently and at cost, especially whenthat thing had nothing to do with its
core activities. It now outsources its dairy
needs to the private sector and focuses its
attention on the defence of the nation.
FROM IN-HOUSE TO OUTSOURCED
The US Navy’s experience of cow
sheds and milking parlours is a rather
niche example of the process manyorganisations have been undergoingfor the last three decades or so. The
transition from in-house to outsourced

services has been a feature of businessin the modern era. The global businessprocess outsourcing market was valued
at USD 245.9bn in 2021 and is expected
to register a compound annual growthrate (CAGR) of 9.1% from 2022 to 2030.
Outsourcing at scale is a relatively
new phenomenon. In the past, large
enterprises aimed for the control
that came with self-sufficiency. They
employed typing pools, cleaners andrepair shops. They operated large
customer service departments whererows of employees would spend the dayanswering phones. If something could
be done in-house, it generally was.

FEATURE – OUTSOURCING ON THE MARCHUHY GLOBAL July 2022 5

Shutterstock.com/Funtap

Compare that to a company of today.
Some of those functions might still
happen on the premises, but there is avery good chance that many or all ofthem are undertaken by third parties
contracted especially for the task.
Contact centres are a well known
example of the trend. They field
calls and – increasingly – texts andemails, helping customers solve issues
or pay bills. When people call theirutility, broadband or financial services
provider these days, it is quite likelythat their query will be answered by theemployee of a third-party provider.
The outsourced contact centre business,already significant, is predicted to growby USD 13.6bn a year up to 2024.
The contact centre is an obvious exampleof business outsourcing but there aremany others. In fact, a full spectrumof business functions can now be
outsourced, from IT and HR to finance,
facilities management and secretarial
services. Some companies outsource someof these functions, many outsource all.
While outsourcing used to be thepreserve of large organisations, the trend
is filtering down the strata of business.
Research has found that more than athird (37%) of small businesses outsource

The contact
centre is an

obvious example ofbusiness outsourcing,but there aremany others.

6 UHY GLOBAL July 2022

FEATURE – OUTSOURCING ON THE MARCH

at least one business process, and morethan half (52%) plan to in future.

to a specialist. Ideally, your third party
service provider will have wide sector
knowledge alongside proven systems
and processes. By utilising focusedexpertise, they will streamline yourtechnology estate, create time-saving
shortcuts and employ scalable services
and applications to keep costs down.

KEEPING IT CORE
What is driving the popularity ofoutsourcing? Lawrence Etukakpan, headof business development at Nigerian
member firm UHY Maaji & Co, believes
companies outsource because it drives
efficiency, and also because it allows
them to focus on what they do best.
“As a company grows, administrative
functions also grow. Managing backoffice operations and administrative
functions takes time and energy out of
any organisation,” he says. “Outsourcing
frees companies from having to manage
non-core functions, and puts a complete
focus on their core competencies.”
In addition, recruiting a new memberof staff is a costly and time-consuming
undertaking. According to widely-sharedstatistics from the Society for Human
Resource Management, companies
spend an average of 42 days and
USD 4,129 filling every position. The costof employing someone goes far beyond
salary. Training, benefits and equipment
costs all have to be taken into account.
Michael Coughtrey, managing partner at
UHY Haines Norton in Sydney, Australia,
says it is not surprising that companies
are turning to outsourcing for noncore operations. If you do not have toemploy someone directly, why bother?
iStock.com/simonkr

Developing standard,
repeatable operatingprocedures within
our practiceallows us to create
efficiencies forboth the clientand ourselves.

“Outsourcing can be seen as a means
to get the level of service that you want
but without the cost – and hassle – ofhaving a full-time in-house employee
to do the work,” he says. “It cancertainly make business sense.”
Lawrence agrees: “Outsourcing frees yourcompany from the effort of searching forexpertise by providing access to skilled
resources at lower costs, with theadditional benefit of not having theburden of managing them directly.”
A TECHNOLOGY-FIRST APPROACH
But how does outsourcing drive
efficiency? One of the chief attractions ofhanding over a function or department toa third-party is that you are outsourcing

That is certainly the case with Client
Accounting Advisory Services (CAAS),
the specialist outsourcing service
of US member firm UHY Advisors.
CAAS national practice leader Kane
Polakoff says scalable technology is avital part of the outsourcing mix.
“Developing standard, repeatable
operating procedures within ourpractice allows us to create efficiencies
for both the client and ourselves,” hecontinues. “We have found significant
benefits in adopting and increasing
technology automation and digitisation
for clients, including increasing workforce
effectiveness and transparency, andfreeing up capacity to reallocate
resources to higher-value activities.”
This move to digitisation can be foundthroughout the outsourcing world.
Contact centres, for example, areincreasingly investing in AI-driven
chatbots to manage basic customer
queries. Investing in an advanced
digital service might be cost-prohibitive
for a company on its own, but costeffective for an outsourced partner thatcan offer the same service to multiple
client businesses at the same time.
POST-PANDEMIC ADVANCES
In fact, the increasing ubiquity of cloudbased services in particular is creating
further opportunities for outsourcing.
Outsourced HR and finance functions
use cloud-based software to instantly
share information with clients. Wheneverything is in the cloud, both parties inan outsourcing partnership have accessto the same data in real time, improving
transparency and nurturing trust.
The Covid pandemic accelerated theadoption of cloud technology, andwith it the attraction of outsourcing atleast some back-office functions. Kane
believes the Great Resignation – thepandemic-fuelled re-evaluation of life
and work – is playing its part too.
“With the Great Resignation, businesses
found themselves with a lack of skilled
accounting and finance workers to
perform essential daily, weekly andmonthly tasks and began to fallbehind. Because of this, businesses
needed to find high-quality service
providers to assist them,” he says.

As Kane suggests, payroll andaccounting services are among thefunctions businesses are increasingly
keen to transfer to specialist thirdparty providers. CAAS offers a full suiteof customisable solutions to clients.
Many other UHY member firms offer
outsourcing in one form or another.

“The outsourced services we currently
provide on a regular basis are in
the areas of CFO services and also
payroll,” says Michael. “The latter
more so to businesses that operate inAustralia but are foreign controlled.”
UHY Maaji & Co also offers the kind ofoutsourced accounting and bookkeeping
services that might otherwise be done by
an in-house professional. “We take overthe preparation of monthly, quarterly or
half-yearly accounts, depending on theclient’s desired frequency,” says Lawrence.
“We prepare a Management Accountwhich includes bank reconciliation
statements, general ledger, fixed
asset register, sales book, petty cash
book, purchases book and so on.”In accounting, as in all potential
outsource agreements, businesses should

OUTSOURCING WITH CARE
Whether it is because of technology,
pandemic trends or simply theneed of many businesses toscale at speed, outsourcing is
enjoying a surge in popularity.

Whether it isbecause oftechnology,

pandemic trends
or simply theneed of manybusinesses toscale at speed,
outsourcing is

enjoying a surge
in popularity.

choose a third-party partner with care.
The quality of service can vary, andsome outsourcing agreements can beinflexible. Kane suggests businesses ask
trusted advisors for recommendations
and check that any potential partner
has experience in the relevant sector.
They should have existing clients thatmatch your own operation in termsof size, industry and ambition.
NO MAGIC BULLET
Of course, not all back- and middle-office
functions are suitable for outsourcing.
It will depend to some extent on the
sector you operate in, but considerations
around confidentiality, data security andcapacity – an outsourcer may not beable to scale quickly enough to meetseasonal peaks in demand, for instance– all need to be taken into account.
And note that global outsourcing, wherebusinesses hand functions over to partners
in other jurisdictions, comes with its own
set of potential benefits and pitfalls.
Nevertheless, outsourcing has become
an important part of the businesslandscape, and for good reason. In a
competitive world, businesses want
to focus on what they do best. To
achieve that, they are increasingly
willing to entrust activities to specialist
third parties that can offer efficiency
and scale at reasonable cost. n

8 UHY GLOBAL July 2022

SERVICE FEATURE – AUDIT IN THE SPOTLIGHT

AUDIT IN THE SPOTLIGHT
RISK-BASED QUALITY SYSTEMS ARE KEY IN MEETING NEW
INTERNATIONAL QUALITY STANDARDS
Audit and assurance professionals are
gearing up to deliver services from
December 15th this year which willmeet the international regulator’s
revised quality management standards.
Announced in 2020 by the IAASB(International Auditing andAssurance Standards Board), theformer ISQC (International Standards
on Quality Control) will be replacedwith ISQM (International Standards
on Quality Management). The
current ISA (International Standard
on Auditing) 220, which outlines
an auditor’s specific engagement
responsibilities, will also be revised.
There are two new standards: ISQM 1
requires a more proactive and risk-based
approach to managing audit quality,
while ISQM 2 introduces new standards
for engagement quality review. The
goal is to reduce the potential for audit
failures and provide more effective
public oversight of corporate finance.
GLOBAL AUDIT
For international accountancy
networks like UHY, it is essential thatevery independent member firm in the

network has an appropriate system of
quality management in place. This meansthat lead auditors can offer multinational
business clients an ISQM compliant
one-stop transnational audit service.
IFAC (International Federation of
Accountants), the profession’s tradebody, monitors international network
compliance through membership of
its Forum of Firms. UHY International
is a member, providing reassurance toclients that audit and assurance work
undertaken by UHY member firms willmeet international quality standards.
In addition, a number of UHY member
firms around the world are also
registered with the PCAOB (PublicCompany Accounting Oversight Board),
enabling them to prepare or issue audit
reports on US public companies and theirsubsidiaries abroad under section 102
of the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002.
It is this commitment to quality andstandards across UHY’s worldwide
auditor base that means UHY member
firms deliver for clients time and timeagain. Indeed, UHY’s growth in audit

iStock.com/AndreyPopovand assurance services in 2021 –outperforming the market average fornon-‘Big Four’ networks* – supports
UHY’s premise that it can provide areal alternative to the largest firms.
(*Source: figures published by theInternational Accountancy Bulletin (IAB)
in their 2022 World Ranking Survey)
MORE THAN STATUTORY COMPLIANCE
When UHY member firms offer audit
and assurance services, the opportunities
for clients are greater than statutorycompliance. UHY strives to add value toevery engagement – so an independent
audit is a chance to enhance and develop
a client’s business, identify areas ofstrength and opportunity, or explore
solutions to potential challenges within
the organisation to mitigate risk.
A UHY member firm client audit
is tailored to the size and type ofbusiness, for optimal results and value.
What is more, increasingly
sophisticated technologies suchas data analytics and artificial
intelligence-based process automation
will in the future unlock even morebusiness value for clients. n

UHY AUDIT AND ASSURANCESERVICES INCLUDE:• Statutory audit and review ofannual financial statements• Internal review• Review of internal controls• Compilation of financial statements
and other financial reports• Performance and value
for money audits• Risk assessment andrecommendations to management• Special purpose audits• Regulatory reports• IFRS reporting• Sarbanes-Oxley compliance• Grant audits• Specialist pension fund audits
UHY also has specialist teams in IT audit
and cybersecurity.
For more information about UHY member
firms and our global audit and assurance
capability, visit www.uhy.com/services
or email info@uhy.com

GLOBAL NEWSUHY GLOBAL July 2022 9

ASIA-PACIFIC MEGA TRADE PACTThe world’s largest multilateral trade
agreement, the Regional Comprehensive
Economic Partnership (RCEP), cameinto force on 1 January 2022.
Comprising the 10 member states of
the Association of Southeast Asian

Nations (ASEAN), plus Australia,
China, Japan, New Zealand and South
Korea, RCEP covers 30% of the global
population and is expected to accountfor USD 12.7 trillion of trade in goods
and services. Hong Kong has also
applied to join the trade agreement.

Unsplash/Chuttersnap

RCEP introduces common policies on rulesof origin, trade facilitation, investment,
intellectual property and e-commerce. Real
income gains are likely to be significant,with Vietnam, Japan and Cambodia
expected to benefit from the highest
export growth. The World Bank saysthat RCEP will support regional trade

PILLAR TWOTAX UPDATEand value chains, helping to cushion theeffect of Covid on economic growth,
while the United Nations trade anddevelopment body UNCTAD reports thatthe economic size of the new trading bloc
will make it a “centre of gravity for global
trade”. RCEP’s promotion of regional
collaboration, reduced trade costs andopportunities for economic diversification
are expected to increase the resilience ofmember economies in the long term.
RCEP is the first agreement to bring China,
Japan and South Korea together in thesame economic system, and is China’s
first multilateral trade agreement.

CORPORATE TAX FOR UAE
The UAE Ministry of Financehas announced the introductionof a federal corporate tax.

The OECD has published technicalguidance on the application and operationof the Global Anti-Base Erosion (GloBE)
Rules agreed in December 2021.

For the financial year starting on orafter 1 June 2023, UAE businesses
and commercial activities withtaxable income over AED 375,000(USD 102,000) will be subject to
9% taxation; a 0% rate will apply
to income below this threshold to
support small businesses and startups.
Foreign and local banks will become
subject to UAE federal tax law;

The GloBE Rules form Pillar Two of the
OECD/G20 framework to address tax
challenges in a digitalised global economy.
This introduces a 15% global minimum
tax on multinational enterprises (MNEs)
with revenues above EUR 750m (USD
789.5m) on income from all jurisdictions inwhich they operate. The Commentary to
the GloBE Rules provides comprehensive
guidance for MNEs and tax administrations
to promote their consistent interpretation.

businesses based on the extractionof natural resources will be exempt.
A higher corporate tax rate will apply
to large multinational businesses
with revenue above AED 3.15bn(USD 857.7m) in line with Pillar 2 of
the OECD BEPS 2.0 framework.
The new tax is part of a series of recent
tax reforms, including the introductionof a sales tax in 2018, intended toalign the UAE with international tax
standards and diversify revenue.

ACCOUNTING FOR NATURE
The chief executives of accountancy
institutes around the world
have called for the profession tocommit to reverse nature loss.

Shutterstock.com/pogonoci

Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the OECD
Centre for Tax Policy and Administration,
said: “With the completion of thetechnical work on the Model Rules
and Commentary, Inclusive Framework
members now have all the tools theyneed to begin implementing the rules.”Ahead of the United Nations
Convention on Biological Diversity
COP15 meeting in Kunming, China,
in April and May 2022, the member
bodies of the Global Accounting
Alliance (GAA) signed the ‘Nature isEveryone’s Business’ call to action,
which advocates for and supports theprotection and restoration of nature
through finance activities and investment
decisions in the business community.
Representing over 1.4 million
accountants and finance professionals

in more than 180 countries, the GAA
has signalled its commitment to workwith governments to establish policy
frameworks for business action,build knowledge and awarenesswithin the profession, and provide
training and infrastructure, toensure that nature is embedded indecision-making and disclosure.
Unsplash/rafapress

10 UHY GLOBAL July 2022

PERSPECTIVES - STILL SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT?

STILL SOMETHING
TO SMILE ABOUT?

iStock.com/hadynyah

THE SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE AGREEMENT MERCOSUR RECENTLYCELEBRATED ITS 30TH BIRTHDAY. UHY MEMBER FIRMS IN THE REGIONDISCUSS ITS IMPACT ON ECONOMIC PROGRESS, AND WHY IT HAS
FAILED TO LIVE UP TO ITS FOUNDING EXPECTATIONSPERSPECTIVES - STILL SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT?

S

outh America is struggling
with the lingering effectsof the Covid pandemic.
Like the rest of the world,
it is also bracing itself fornegative economic impacts
from the war in Ukraine.

In this respect, it is facing universal
challenges, but the continent is startingfrom a more uncertain base thancompetitor economies like China, theUS and the European Union (EU).
The Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
has forecast anaemic growth forSouth America as a whole in 2022:
1.5% compared to 2.8% for the
EU and US and 5% for China.
ECLAC’s prediction comes shortly after the
30th birthday of Mercosur, the continent’s
economic bloc, an agreement that wasonce seen as the vehicle to accelerate
economic and political integration in theregion. Mercosur came into being withmuch fanfare in 1991, and was hailed
as South America’s version of the EU.
Three decades on and many
commentators agree that whateverelse Mercosur is, it is not that. The factthat its two largest economies – Brazil
and Argentina – contracted by 4%
and nearly 10% respectively in thefirst year of the pandemic is, in part,
testament to its failings. The bloc has
also failed to realise trade deals withthe world’s largest economies, andthe sometimes fractious relationshipbetween its two leading partners does
not suggest a successful programme.

Mercosur members, leaping from USD
4 billion in 1990 to a peak of over USD
50 billion in 2011. Tariff reductions
have worked, to some extent.
So what is the future of Mercosurin a post-pandemic world? Is it a
failing experiment, in need of urgent
modification or even abandonment? Or is
it time for members to take the next step
towards greater economic and political
integration? We asked UHY experts
from around the region for their views.
A POSITIVE IMPACT
Among UHY professionals, there is wide
agreement that the implementationof reduced or zero tariff regimes is theagreement’s greatest achievement.
Franklin Bendoraytes, managing partner at
Brazilian member firm UHY Bendoraytes &Cia, also sees positives in the agreement’s
gradual elimination of tariff and non-tariff
trade restrictions. He says that Mercosuris responsible for a ‘significant opening
up of trade’ between member countries.
“Without it, we would be some way
behind where we are today in termsof trade within the bloc,” he adds.
But others say the increase in internal
trade, although welcome, is by no means
an unqualified success. In Argentina,
there are worries that Mercosur is failingto reduce the trade deficit with Brazil.
“Unfortunately, due to asymmetries
between partners and different economic
policies, Argentina has not benefited fromthe agreement in the way we would have
liked, other than the reduction in certain
custom duties,” says Tomas R. Merlos,
partner at UHY Macho & Asociados.

Another issue is the bloc’s stalled
membership. The founders – Argentina
and Brazil, plus Paraguay and Uruguay– remain the only full members. Bolivia,
Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru
and Suriname are associate members,
which means they receive some of
the bloc’s trade tariff benefits but
play no part in shaping its future.

Ecuador is an associate memberof Mercosur, and Freddy Cevallos
Bustamante, managing partner at UHY
Assurance & Services Cia. Ltda. says theliberalisation of trade within the Mercosur
economic area has been a mixed blessing.
He believes Mercosur has created
opportunities in certain areas, but admits
Ecuador has also suffered from an almost
permanent trade deficit with the bloc.

And yet, despite considerable scepticism,
there is no doubt that Mercosur has
achieved some tangible successes. The
early years of the agreement saw alarge increase in internal trade between“Trade between Ecuador and Mercosur
countries is concentrated in a small
number of products, and they haveshown a positive trend over the last 15
years,” he says. “But the unfavourable

UHY GLOBAL July 2022 11

situation for Ecuador in terms of the
trade balance has been maintained.”
Marcia Berthin, partner at Bolivian
member firm HBA S.R.L., saysthat tariff reductions have helped
certain products, but greater border
openness is needed for true regional
integration. That openness should
include lithium exports, a significant
potential area of business for Bolivia.

Despite considerable
scepticism, there
is no doubt that
Mercosur has

achieved sometangible successes.

There have been other benefits. For
example, since 2004 over USD 1
billion in non-refundable loans forregional infrastructure projects has
been distributed by the bloc’s Structural
Convergence Fund (FOCEM).
Paraguay is the smallest of the full
member countries in GDP terms and,like Mercosur's smaller associates, has
benefited from the progressive tariff
reductions programme. The potential
for offering foreign operators access to
Brazilian and Argentinian markets atzero tariffs in the future, should be an
incentive for new inward investment although current experience suggests that
local businesses do not always benefit.
WASTED POTENTIAL
Success has clearly been limited, andthe overriding sense is of an agreementthat has not fulfilled its potential.
There are several reasons for that, butchief among them is a gradual erosion ofpolitical will. Mercosur came into being
partly to promote closer ties between
Brazil and Argentina, but progress in thatregard has been inconsistent at best.

12 UHY GLOBAL July 2022

In Argentina, Tomas sees this – alongwith structural imbalances between
member states – as central to the bloc’s
failings. “There has been little politicalwill, and trading infrastructures indifferent member countries are not thesame,” he says. “Political differences
between countries have also made itdifficult to achieve common benefits.”
Politics is certainly holding the bloc back.
That is exemplified by the failure of a
trade agreement between Mercosur
and the EU. An agreement in principle
has been in place since 2019, but the
EU’s refusal to ratify it is in part down
to what is perceived as the current
Brazilian government’s refusal to curb
illegal logging in the Amazon.
Since the turn of the century, therelationship between Mercosur’s
two largest economies has beencharacterised by tension, interspersedwith brief periods of detente. That
has hugely undermined the ambitionsof the original agreement.
Away from the ‘big two’, structuralinequality in a geographically diverse
region remains a key challenge. Freddy
says that the cost of transporting
Ecuadorian goods puts it at a

PERSPECTIVES - STILL SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT?

The potential deal with the EU – 20 years

in the making – has hit serious roadblocks,
and there seems little possibility of a deal

between Mercosur and the US anytime soon.

continuous competitive disadvantage.
In Bolivia, Marcia says that, on balance,“the country has not been able to reap
the benefits of Mercosur". She points
to the second class status of associate
members and the cumbersome process
for achieving full membership status.
There is also a sense among smaller
members and associate members that
Mercosur has benefited multinational
businesses wanting easier accessto South American markets much
more than indigenous companies.
THE GLOBAL SITUATIONAll of these factors have contributed
to perhaps Mercosur’s most glaring

failing. With a pre-pandemic Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) approaching
USD 4.6 trillion, Mercosur – if it werea sovereign nation – would be theworld’s fifth largest economy.
But it has yet to sign fundamental trade
agreements with any of the world’s
leading nations and trading blocs. The
potential deal with the EU – 20 years in
the making – has hit serious roadblocks,
and there seems little possibility of adeal between Mercosur and the US
anytime soon. It has had some success inpromoting trade with China, but muchof this is replacing trade with othercountries rather than building on it.
In fact, the situation with China has

iStock.com/Leila Melhado

exposed further divisions within the bloc.
Uruguay has promoted the establishmentof a free trade agreement (FTA) with theworld’s second largest economy, andBrazil is leaning the same way. Argentina,
by contrast, has publicly opposed the
move, fearing the consequences ofan influx of cheap Chinese imports.
Brazil’s Franklin admits that thesechallenges are undermining theagreement’s original aims. “One of thegoals of an economic bloc like Mercosur
is to smooth the process of creating tradedeals with the world’s biggest economies,
and in that it has failed,” he says.
Hugo Gubba, managing partner of
Uruguay member firm UHY Gubba &Asociados, points to certain successes,
like the recent FTA with Egypt andongoing negotiations with South Korea
and Canada. “But the big deals are
missing,” he says. “A huge amount ofwork went into a deal with the EU andthe fact that at the moment it seems along way off is very disappointing.”
Could these failures see an unravellingof Mercosur? It is not out of thequestion, says Argentina’s Tomas. “Asa bloc, Mercosur has not facilitatedeasier access to international markets.
Moreover, some member governments
have spoken about the need toreconsider previous commitments.”
THE FUTURE
Does the agreement have a future? It
is likely to remain limited in scope andachievement without broader politicalagreement between its two dominanteconomies. It is certainly possible that
it will not survive growing tensions over
China and broader economic policy. Someobservers point to a reluctance in the bloc
to address trade in intellectual capitaland intangibles, a growing concern.
At the same time, discussions between
Brazil and Argentina in 2019 ended withthe two agreeing to ‘review and perfect’
Mercosur, rather than step back. Manyof the loftier ambitions behind theinitial deal have now been jettisoned,
and members are looking for more
independence outside the bloc. For
now, Mercosur’s much reduced rolelooks to be mostly as a mechanism
for further tariff reductions. n

iStock.com/andresr

14 UHY GLOBAL July 2022

CLIENT STORYGLOBAL SUCCESS FORHIGH GROWTH CFOANNELI ALJAS, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER OF INNOVATIVE ESTONIAN TECH STARTUPEURORA, HAS RELIED ON UHY’S GLOBAL NETWORK FOR MORE THAN A DECADE

Eurora is a next-generation
technology provider, basedin Estonia, with a fast growing
global network and a strong
presence in Asia, the Middle
East, Europe, the UK and theUnited States. It smooths crossborder e-commerce processes,
using technology to automate
the time-consuming elementsof customs compliance.
Eurora’s proprietary technology canreplace hours of manual labour
traditionally required for cross bordertax declarations and applying relevant
HS (Harmonised Commodity Description

and Coding System) codes.
The company’s rapid expansion has
been assisted by UHY member firms
around the world. Chief Financial
Officer Anneli Aljas will turn to local
UHY firms first whenever the company
begins operating in a new country.
This has been Anneli’s modus operandi
for more than a decade. In all, she has
worked with over 20 UHY member firms,
in three different roles. “When you areresponsible for many countries and you
need to set up accounting fast, youneed to have a partner you can trust,”
she says. “I have achieved that.”
When that need arises, she is happy
to take recommendations from SarahUHY IN THE HIGH GROWTH
STARTUP SECTOR
The global reach of the UHY network
means member firms are well positioned
to provide local market knowledge andadvice. Many entrepreneurs and startups which work with UHY member firms
have international operations or plansto scale and break into new markets.
In addition to providing audit, assurance,
tax and business advisory services, member
firms have helped many technology
clients deal with the practicalities of
establishing sales, manufacturing orservice facilities in new jurisdictions.
Protecting customer security, thepressures involved in having to rapidly
bring new products to market andvaluing intellectual property are someof the key business issues where UHY
specialists are able to provide expert
and trusted advice. It means clients
can make the most of cross-borderopportunities and achieve their goals.
iStock.com/SeanPavonePhotoCampion, a manager at UK member firm
UHY Hacker Young, as well as from UHY
member firms in France and Spain.
INTERNATIONAL AMBITIONS
Anneli first came across UHY whileworking for an online IT purchasing
solution provider and another Estonian
startup. She needed an accountant in the
UK. “I was looking for a company that
was already international but that was alsoscalable. These were important criteria.
After that it was just a feeling. It was about
who I felt was the best fit for us,” she says.
Sarah Campion led the presentation
for UHY Hacker Young and was, says
Anneli, “an excellent salesperson for
UHY.” UHY was awarded the contract

UHY GLOBAL July 2022 15

CLIENT STORY

Image: (c) Johan-Paul Hion with permission

The company’s

rapid expansion has
been assisted by

UHY member firms
around the world.

and Sarah set up the UK accounting
operation in an efficient, timely andcost-effective way. She has been Anneli’s
go-to contact at UHY ever since.
The business enjoyed significant
expansion, and various UHY member
firms were quickly involved. When
Anneli moved to Bolt, another ambitious
Estonian technology startup, she
continued to rely on the UHY networkas the business expanded first in
Europe and then further afield.

Eurora is very much
CFO Anneli with founder and CEO Marko Lastik (l)and COO Egon Veermäe (r)Bolt is now a huge global success story,
offering mobility services - ride-hailing,
micromobility, car-sharing and food delivery
services - in more than 400 cities in over
45 countries in Europe, Africa, Western
Asia and Latin America. UHY member
firms have serviced the needs of thecompany in many of those territories.
INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING
Anneli remembers one introduction to a
local UHY member firm in particular:“When you are starting a business in a
strange country trust is very important,”
she says. “At Bolt I’d flown to Nairobi, in
Kenya, to meet the incumbent accountant
and there were things I was unhappy with.
I reached out to Sarah and asked if she
could set up a meeting with the local UHY
firm within 24 hours, before I flew out. She
made the arrangements and I met the local
UHY team (UHY Kenya) and immediately
thought they were fantastic people.”Through her previous startups (Bolt,
for example, in over 45 countries) and
now Eurora (15 plus countries including
the UK and the US and growing),
Anneli has worked with UHY aroundthe world, from Ireland to Denmark,Canada to Kenya and Australia
to Uganda. She has always foundprofessionalism, attention to detail and anunderstanding of cross-border business.
“For over ten years I have been working
with UHY in many countries and withmany UHY people, and I have always

at the beginningof its startup

journey, but Anneli
is confident thebusiness can be

another standout
performer in

Estonia’s impressive
technology sector.

been positively impressed with how thecompany has been ready to help withsuch international expansion,” she says.
WORKING TOGETHER
Eurora is very much at the beginningof its startup journey, but Anneli is
confident the business can be anotherstandout performer in Estonia’s impressive
technology sector. At the moment,
UHY firms look after accounting, tax,
audit and payroll services for Eurora
subsidiaries in several countries. Anneli
runs a central team and UHY firms act as
chief accountants in each jurisdiction.
“In all three businesses, to expand
internationally at speed required finding
an accounting partner I could trust
and that would be able to work to
our requirements very easily in eachcountry,” Anneli adds. “I found UHY
at the start and since then we havecooperated very successfully.” n16 UHY GLOBAL July 2022

PERSONAL PROFILESTAR PERFORMANCEFROM TOP PLAYER
A

flamboyant childhood
helped to shape the creativemind of our chief executive
officer (CEO), Rhys Madoc, as hebrings originality and a brilliant
strategic mind to the pivotal
job of steering UHY forwards
into its most enterprising times“I firmly believe that our best days are yet tocome,” says Rhys. “Our world has endured
unparalleled trials recently but whenchallenges are met head-on and rolled into
new thinking, their outcomes can reallysurprise us. With exceptional support fromthe UHY Board and real commitment frommy executive office team, we are enjoyinga renewed appetite for open dialogue thatwill feed into exciting developmental routes
forward. There are so many positives about
belonging to our network right now.”

Our world has

endured unparalleledtrials recently but
when challenges

are met head-on
and rolled into

new thinking, theiroutcomes canreally surprise us.

An early realisation that his childhood was
different from most of his peers has fed
into Rhys’s can-do attitude and general
acceptance that out of unpredictability
comes innovation. The oldest child of two
famous TV, stage and film actors, Philip
and Ruth Madoc, it was not unusual tobump into well-known personalities,
actors and singers at home. Rhys’s parents
were household names in the UK fromthe 1970s onwards but Rhys was acutely
aware that the lifestyle this brought was
not one which his friends and their families
experienced. Philip appeared in some ofthe period’s most celebrated British TV
drama series – Another Bouquet, Dad’s
Army and The Life and Times of David Lloyd
George, (UK Prime Minister from 1916
to 1922). Ruth’s most famous role was as
Gladys Pugh in television’s award-winningand hugely popular British comedy HiDe-Hi!, which was broadcast throughout
the 1980s, and she went on to appear innumerous other stage and TV productions.
“My sister Lowri and I shared some
remarkable experiences thanks to ourparents’ celebrity and when I finished my

A-levels I flew to join my Dad in Nice on
the French Riviera, where he was filmingwith the lovely Joan Collins. This was oneof many incredible opportunities thatcame my way as a young man and I feel
blessed,” says Rhys. “My parents wereboth very talented and very lucky. They had
no idea about work outside acting – somuch so, that when I started developing
my corporate life in HR, training andmanagement development, my Mum
thought I must be a spy because I was
always travelling. Everything had to beout of the ordinary to make sense!”
HARD WORK AND BIG OPPORTUNITY
When time allows, Rhys records stories
for visually impaired people and still
does occasional commercial voiceover
work, but his passion is rooted in driving
UHY forwards with the full support ofa re-energised Board. “I want every
member firm to enjoy greater agility toperform more quickly and more efficiently
because of the new directions we are
putting in place. I fully believe that for the
network to grow and serve its members,
we need to make sure we have theright firms in the right cities, producing
the right referrals with the right levelof service lines. These four principles
are our unshakeable focus now.”“Face-to-face Board meetings twicea year are crucial to achieving theseambitions,” says Rhys. “The value ofgetting together is enormous and injects
real momentum into our collective efforts
to think more strategically about how to
improve the way we work. I am always
grateful to our directors for travellinghuge distances to attend these events,
wherever they are in the world. Theirinvestment pays off every time.”“Key outcomes of recent meetings havebeen that the Board is setting out somevery challenging referrals targets which
are only achievable if all member firms
embrace them and ask for help when theyneed it. I want to ensure the processesPERSONAL PROFILEUHY GLOBAL July 2022 17

plenty of quality family time. Our favourite
weekend treats are trips to Legoland
in Windsor, walking with our Cavapoo
dog, Selwyn, and entertaining friends at
home. These moments are priceless.”
At home Rhys enjoys playing the piano
and writing classical music. He also
writes poetry and works with charities
such as Eye Need Sight, an organisationthat provides appropriate eye wear
for people in developing countries.

Rhys at homewith his family

We need the rightfirms in the rightcities, producing

the right referralswith the rightservice lines.

and bureaucracy we have in place are
there to help, not hinder, growth andthey should successfully streamline ourbusiness processes so everyone can work
faster and more freely. We should not be
doing anything that stops member firms
working at their maximum efficiency, at thesame time as actively encouraging themto grow. Less formally, I meet regularly
with CEOs of other mid-tier networks andassociations to share ideas and current
working practices. These events are basedon trust and relationship building, and theygive us all new insights and the confidence
to know we are doing the right things.”
Peering into the future, Rhys
anticipates continuing expansion andconfident progression towards every
member firm being able to provide
the full range of UHY services.
“At a macro level we will be influenced bywhat happens across the business world ingeneral. Some years ago the consolidationof smaller networks was heavily anticipatedbut never fully realised and there may
be new interest in this from our industry.

Whatever happens, we will continue toexplore new service lines and consider the
future impact on our profession with newtechnologies such as artificial intelligence(AI) and cryptocurrency audits. As a thriving
mid-tier organisation we always review
what the Big Four standard bearers are
doing. Our strength is that our size allows
us to respond quickly to external hurdles
and opportunities – a freedom that ourbigger competitors will never have.”“We have deliberately not created any
utopian ideal,” says Rhys. “Constantchange and development will always reset
our ambitions and it would be foolishto believe that we can ever be exactly
where we want to be. Within our brilliant
executive team we are growing our skills
and our reach, and we work with someoutstanding partners to make sure things
like our brand, our trademark, our intranet
and our publications are the best in thebusiness. The support that we can give toevery single person associated with UHY isphenomenal and I urge everyone to use it.”
HOME TIME
Rhys lives in St Albans, UK, with his wife
Josie, their daughter, Seren, who is 14
and their 12-year-old son, Dylan. “I am
immensely proud of my family,” he says.
“Both children have a strong acting geneand thrive on their experiences at drama
school. I am loving watching them become
hard-working, ambitious, thoughtful andgrounded young adults – Seren is fixed
on a career in acting, backed up by her
strong academic abilities, and Dylan is also
creatively focused and a joy to be around.
My wife is a senior executive at Vodafone,
so although our working weeks are
extremely busy we make sure we set aside

Proud of the Welsh heritage heinherited from both parents, Rhys
enjoys being part of various initiatives
to promote the artistic achievementsof young Welsh people in London.
“My roots are very important to me.
Both my parents have been strong
supporters of many Welsh causes,” says
Rhys. “Our childhood was spent doing
the rounds of eisteddfods – wonderfulcelebratory festivals of all things Welsh.
At my core I am a Welshman and I silence
my children when they say they don’t
support Wales in rugby or other sports!”
Pride, generosity, humour and endlesscommitment to everything that mattersto him is what defines Rhys. “I love myfamily, I love my work and I am always
looking for new ways to inspire people
and to laugh loudly. Adventures andexperiences are everywhere,” he says.
“We just need to look out for them.” nRhys, left, with his daughter, Seren,son, Dylan and wife, Josie, at the film
premiere of James Bond’s No Time To Die

18 UHY GLOBAL July 2022

UHY SERVICESSERVING CLIENTS TODAY AND TOMORROW
Our clients appreciate how UHY’s cultureof working together can make a significant
difference to seamless international
engagements. We deliver because ourmember firms know each other well, wemeet and connect regularly, and we share
current thinking, specialist skills, andindustry knowledge across the world.
We also share a common set of standards –not only the international quality standards
demanded of our profession, but also thevalues by which every UHY member firmholds itself accountable to its clients
including integrity, innovation, andinternational thinking.
UHY member firms offer thefollowing services:
CORPORATE SERVICES
Note: Not all of the services described in this publication
are provided by every UHY member firm. The provisionof some services may be restricted in some areas
depending on local legislation.

• AUDIT & ASSURANCE, including: statutory
audit, internal reviews, compilation andreview of financial statements including
compliance with International Financial
Reporting Standards (IFRS), special purpose
and international audits.
• BUSINESS ADVISORY & ACCOUNTING,
including: accounting and bookkeeping,outsourcing, business plans and independent
business reviews, business valuations,financial planning and control, reviewing
management reporting systems, company
formations and company secretarial services
including appropriate commercial andtax-efficient structures for international
expansion and cross-border ventures, trusts
and foundations, pension funds, charitableand philanthropic structures, interim finance& management, payroll administration,
employee benefits and business systems.
• CORPORATE FINANCE, including: strategic
business advisory services, businessvaluations, due diligence, transactional
services (acquisitions, mergers, disposals,
MBOs, IPOs) across all industry sectors andgeographies, restructuring, exit strategies
and startups.

• CORPORATEGOVERNANCE & RISKMANAGEMENT, including: corporate
governance, risk management andconsulting including Sarbanes-Oxley
compliance services.
•C ORPORATE RECOVERY & INSOLVENCY,
including: debt collection, corporate
turnaround, asset protection or repossession,or implementing good management
practices, refinancing, valuations, debt
management, insolvency planning, personal
liability protection.
•C ORPORATE TAX, including: direct taxationand indirect taxation, international tax suchas tax-efficient structures for international
expansion and cross-border ventures,transnational group structuring,
VAT returns and advice, tax
consultancy and transfer pricing.
• FORENSIC ACCOUNTING & LITIGATIONSUPPORT, including: litigation support,
valuations, economic damages, fraud
evaluations, criminal proceedings and money
laundering issues.
• F UND SERVICES, including: fundestablishment and administration.

• INTERNATIONALISATION, including:business contact introductions, local
regulatory requirements and businessetiquette, local business tax environment,
business structuring and compliance,
personal taxation, recruitment and labour
law consultancy, transfer pricing, customs
and other fiscal areas.
• LEGAL, including: tax law,labour law, etc.
• MANAGEMENT CONSULTING& SOLUTIONS, including:internationalisation of businesses,
human resources and recruitment
services, information technology
and software solutions.
PRIVATE CLIENT SERVICES
Key services include: wealth management forindividuals and families, income tax and capitalgains tax planning, international tax planningfor expatriates and migrants, non-domicile
status, trust services and management,
inheritance planning.

OUR COMMITMENT TO QUALITY
Quality is one of UHY’s main
values – because it is so important to us
we strive to achieve this in everything
we do. Each of our independent
member firms has signed a Quality
Charter committing to the adoption
and achievement of performance andservice objectives considered essential todelivering this quality promise to clients.
The expectations we have of our member
firms are benchmarked to recognised
international professional standards. We
set specific quality goals and expectations
for our independent member firms tomeet, covering areas such as client service
efficiency and relationship management,
professional work standards, depth
and breadth of products, services andgeographical coverage. Collectively,
they represent our aim to provide clientswith consistent, seamless, professional
and timely cross-border services.

Our member firms are evaluated annually
against UHY’s quality expectations, allowing
us to assess our performance and outcomes,
and look for new ways to improvefurther. We focus on quality through:• Leadership• Client acceptance procedures• Full membership of the Forum of Firms• Compliance with ethical obligations
set out by the International
Federation of Accountants in its
global standard, Code of Ethics
for Professional Accountants• Human resources policies and procedures,such as education and training• And, of course, quality control
procedures in accordance withinternationally recognised standards.
It is our belief in quality as a value andthe successful implementation of thatvalue across all our service areas thatmake our network more dedicated toquality than many other networks.

SERVING CLIENTS, SERVING COMMUNITIESUHY GLOBAL July 2022 19

PARTY OF THE HALF CENTURY
Years of experience and the quality ofits services in accounting, auditing, tax
planning and consulting, place UHY
Macho & Asociados – celebrating themember firm’s 50th anniversary in
2022 – among the first, mostimportant and respected
firms in Argentina.
The firm launched in1972, with the UHY
network and Macho& Asociados coming
together in 1989 to offer
accounting and auditing
services with a regional focus.
The firm now provides its services
throughout Latin America, where
it has clients in various countries.

offices. Roberto Macho, managing
partner and UHY International Board
director, says, “We are inviting ourmain clients and business contacts tocelebrate, and will take the opportunity
to review the journey our firm
has taken this last half acentury. Coincidental
to the anniversary wehave opened a new
office in the north ofArgentina (Tucuman)
and we will share our
expansion plans as well.”This year the firm celebrates its 50th
anniversary with a party in both
Buenos Aires and Miami, where it has

YOUNGSTERSHAVE THE MOVESEvery year, together with the city’s
chess school, UHY Tashkent LLC –UHY’s member firm in Uzbekistan– sponsors the Sky Chess Open
tournament, the latest of which
took place in September of 2021.
More than 100 people of all ages
take part in the competition for a
total prize fund of more than USD
200. The tournament, which aims topopularise the game in the country,
takes place over a whole day, andis dedicated to the birthday of Sky
Chess – a leader in Uzbekistan in
the nurturing of chess talent.
“The uniqueness of the tournament liesin the fact that it involves international
masters as well as grandmasters,
which gives young and amateur chessplayers an opportunity to play withthem during the tournament,” says
managing partner Sarvarkhon Karimov,whose firm has been sponsoring
the competition since 2018.

UHY’S
RISING STARS
Two corporate finance specialists
from UHY Advisors, Inc., US, havebeen recognised as rising stars inrecent US industry awards.
Michigan-based Alex Conti (pictured,
above), was named as an ‘investmentbanker to watch’ by Middle Market
Growth for 2022 and Ben Hartman,senior vice president, UHY Corporate
Finance was awarded the ‘risingstar’ accolade at the Global M&A
Network’s M&A Atlas Awards.
The M&A Atlas Awards, which are
now in their fourth year, honour
exceptional young dealmakers fromthe private equity and growth investors,
lending, M&A and restructuringtransactional communities.
Based in Michigan, Ben Hartman, whojoined UHY in 2014, advises clientson mergers and acquisitions, helps
with strategic decision making andhas experience across a broad range
of industries. He is also responsible
for assisting the growth of UHY
Corporate Finance, supporting a groupof more than 20 professionals who
specialise in financial due diligence,
financial planning and analysis.
Alex Conti has advised ontransactions totalling more than
USD 1bn in deal value. He also
has experience in mergers andacquisitions, due diligence,
restructuring and capital sourcing.

20 UHY GLOBAL July 2022

HAVE WE REACHEDPEAK M&A?

MERGERS AND ACQUISITION REBOUNDED TO RECORD-BREAKINGLEVELS IN 2021, BUT THERE ARE HEADWINDS AHEAD

Companies used M&A
to scale quickly,

opportunities in the

post-pandemic world.

iStock.com/Tryaging

predicting new

FEATURE − HAVE WE REACHED PEAK M&A?

UHY GLOBAL July 2022 21A

re strategic mergers and acquisitions (M&A) back on thecorporate agenda? The short answer is, you bet they are.
According to figures from management consultants Bain andCompany, total global M&A deal value reached USD 5.9
trillion in 2021, an all time high.
Bain’s commentary called 2021 a ‘historic
land grab’, and you can certainly see
what they mean. After a pandemic-led
dip in activity in 2020, corporates had the
cash reserves to pursue expansion, andmany did so by acquiring or combining
with other businesses. Competitors,
suddenly anxious about being left
behind, felt compelled to join the fray.
Low interest rates helped, as did the wideavailability of target companies only too
willing to be acquired. The pandemic
gave business leaders time to reflect.
Some concluded that the time hadcome to sell up and do something else;
others, that life was too short to put off
bold expansion strategies any longer.
“The M&A market was very brisk in 2021
and this has continued into 2022,” says
Alan Farrelly, managing director at UHY
Farrelly Dawe White Limited, Ireland.
“I believe businesses caught sight of theend of the pandemic and decided either
to re-invest or sell out. I think the last
financial crisis and now the pandemic
caused many clients to reflect on theirbusinesses and assess what their options
were in terms of continuing or selling up.”
Morito Saito, vice president and directorof UHY Fas in Japan, paints a similar
picture. “In Japan, the number of cases
increased by 14.71% in 2021,” hesays. “The causes of the increase are
Covid-19 damage and monetary easing.

There were many cases of businesses
becoming subsidiaries due to a shortageof successors, a shortage of humanresources, and a decrease in sales.”AS BROAD AS IT IS DEEP
Around the world, deal-making activity
in the last 18 months has been broadand deep. Companies used M&A to scale
quickly, predicting new opportunities
in the post-pandemic world. Others
acquired businesses that gave themcrucial capabilities, often aroundtechnology but in other areas as well.
Some businesses saw M&A as a quick
and easy way to access new markets.
Eric Ribachonek, partner at US member
firm UHY LLP, says: “Our group focuseslargely on TMT (technology, media,
telecommunications) and manufacturing
and distribution. We have seen mostof our volume on the TMT side. The
acquisition of technology has andwill continue to play a big part ofthe deal activity going forward.”
Eric adds that activity in media
and telecommunications has also
been significant, both as a shortcut
to more advanced technology in
an increasingly digital sector, andbecause of the continuation of a trend
towards consolidation in this space.
Alan agrees that technology has been akey driver of M&A activity, as pandemic
digitisation trends continued. “Techcompanies are certainly leading the way

We anticipate that there willcontinue to be demand for
acquisitions of dispensing
pharmacies and medical

services by major companies.

and big multiples are being achieved,”
he says. “We are still seeing techcompanies that never returned a profit
being acquired for strong values.”
The Bain and Company report confirms
what UHY members have been seeing
on the ground. It says tech assets haveboomed spectacularly, with medianenterprise value/EBITDA (earnings
before interest, taxes, depreciation, andamortisation) multiples at 25 times.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, healthcare also
saw asset prices soar. “In both techand healthcare, buyers are willing to
pay a premium for high-margin, highgrowth assets,” the authors state.
In Japan, healthcare is the key driver of
M&A activity, a sector which includes
dispensing pharmacies as well as medical
services. “The medical dispensing field isa huge market in Japan, with over 59,000
outlets,” says Morito. “We anticipate
that there will continue to be demand for
acquisitions of dispensing pharmacies andmedical services by major companies.”
Morito also believes that new laws
around overtime driving hours, due
to come into force in 2024, will fuelconsolidation in the home delivery sector
as businesses face a shortage of drivers.
THE US LEADS THE WAY
Deal values soared around the world in
2021, but nowhere more than in the US,
where the USD 2.6 trillion of deal value
was 30% higher than the previous record.
It was the first time US M&A activity
had breached the USD 2 trillion mark.
“My group operates in the financial
and tax due diligence and post-deal
integration space. The number of deals
we supported in 2021 was more

22 UHY GLOBAL July 2022

FEATURE − HAVE WE REACHED PEAK M&A?

The US has always been fertile groundfor M&A, but 2021 was unique in boththe size of deals and the complexity of
the financial vehicles used to facilitate
them. This was the year of the SPAC
(special purpose acquisition companies− companies formed solely for the
purpose of M&A) as many sought merger
targets. SPAC mergers accounted forapproximately 20% of US M&A volume.
In addition, private equity firms drove themarket forward by deploying historiclevels of cash reserves in ever morecreative ways.
All this, says Eric, was underpinned bya low interest rate environment, and arebound from the dip of early Covid.
“Towards the end of 2021, we also saw
lots of activity stemming from a concernthat tax rates may change,” he adds.
2022 AND BEYOND
Will this frenzy of activity continue in
2022 and beyond? Until very recently,
most commentators were predicting
another busy year. Many still are – notperhaps the record breaking figuresof 2021, but good nonetheless.
Rob Kindler, global head of M&A atinvestment bank Morgan Stanley, is
not alone in claiming that "all the key

There seemed to bea strong economic
bounce from thepandemic globally,

but peace in Europe
is essential.

iStock.com/simonkr

than double that in 2020,” says
Eric. “We utilise (trend indicator)
Pitchbook, and their middle market
private equity research also suggeststhat both deal value and volume
have almost doubled since 2020.”

elements that made the 2021 M&A
market so strong are largely in place"(Morgan Stanley’s 2022 M&A Outlook:
continued strength after a record year).
In the US, that is reflected in a strong
pipeline of deals for Eric and his team.
“The macro environment will play abig part in what happens in the next
12 months,” he says. “The situation
with Russia and Ukraine, inflation,rising interest rates, these issues
may impact M&A activity. For now,
all I can say is we haven’t seen an
adverse impact from these factors.”
The twin threat of inflation and risinginterest rates had already been identified
by many experts, alongside potential
supply chain issues and increasing
regulatory scrutiny in some sectors. But
the Ukraine situation is a headwindthat nobody could have predicted. At
the time of writing, its effect on wider
global M&A activity is starting to be felt.
Figures released for the first quarter of2022 show M&A activity down by 29%
when compared with the same period lastyear. Stock market volatility, fuelled by the
conflict in eastern Europe, is blamed for
putting the brakes on deal-making. Large
companies are pausing their acquisition
strategies, at least in the short term.
Alan says that the current situation makes
the rest of the year harder to predict.
“Hyperinflation, shortage of materials,
rising interest rates and trouble in eastern
Europe: it is hard to see how thesewill play out over the coming months,
especially as they are such diverse issues.
There seemed to be a strong economic

bounce from the pandemic globally, butpeace in Europe is essential and logisticalissues around supply chains need tobe corrected to allow for continued
growth in the M&A sector,” he adds.
In Japan, the situation looks morenuanced as businesses use M&A as asurvival strategy, supported by central
bank policies. “Japanese monetaryeasing policy is expected to continue
for a long time, so we believe that
M&A activity will continue to increasein the future,” says Morito. “The Bankof Japan is concerned about economic
stagnation and is going to continue ultralow interest rates for the time being.”
Elsewhere, despite the downturn,deal-making is still strong by historicalstandards. “While execution has becomea bit harder due to the increased volatility
and macro concerns, that hasn’t stopped
new activity,” said Stephan Feldgoise,co-head of global M&A at investmentbank Goldman Sachs (Reuters,
Global M&A hits the skids as
Ukraine war saps confidence).
So, have we reached peak M&A? The
short answer is that we probably have.
A convergence of factors helped to make2021 a record year for M&A deals, andthose unique circumstances are unlikely
to be repeated. Indeed, the headwindsof 2022 – predicted and otherwise – arealready slowing the surge. But decline isrelative. At the moment, M&A activity
has simply returned to levels that weretypical from 2016 to 2019. What happens
next may depend on unknowablegeopolitical events. For now, M&A
remains buoyant, if no longer booming. n

iStock.com/fizkes

COGS AND WHEELSLIFELONG LEARNINGFOR BETTER BUSINESSO

ur regular Cogs and Wheels feature takes a look at thechallenges an international network faces in today’s
professional services industry. In this issue we look at theimportance of lifelong learning and how UHY supports its
9,000 professionals worldwide.

Thanks to the pandemic, we are all expert
at using Zoom and Teams these days. We
know all about data security and working
in the cloud. When we worked remotely(and some of us still do, at least someof the time), many of us had to learn
skills that might otherwise have beenleft to in-house IT departments, and we
had to learn them almost overnight.
In its extreme way, the pandemic
proved the value of lifelong learning.
Many professionals are returning to theoffice better equipped for the futurethan they were two or three years ago.
Many organisations are more efficientand cost-effective as a result. The silver
lining of the deep dark cloud of Covid isthat it accelerated the pace of progressby a rate of knots. By some estimates,
we are up to seven years ahead ofwhere we would otherwise have been,at least in terms of technology.
A KNOWLEDGE-BASED BUSINESS
Accountancy has always known thevalue of continual learning. The very
least that clients expect is that the
professionals that make up an audit
or tax team are fully up to date withthe latest relevant legislation changes,
reporting standards and regulations.
These can change quite frequently,

often shaped by government policy.
But good businesses go further. The
mix of skills an accountant needs ischanging, thanks to new digital delivery
methods, new ways of working and theaccountant’s growing role as a trusted
business advisor. Accountants needtechnical skills and professional insight.
They increasingly need a range of soft
skills tailored to the new, post-lockdown
environment. For example, the ability to
manage and motivate teams is essential ata time when talent is scarce. Accountancy
leaders need to create an atmosphere that
attracts and retains excellent employees.
As accountancy changes, the needfor continual learning only grows. The
benefits of training and development
reinforce each other. Continual learning
opportunities update your in-house
expertise. Employees who feel invested inwork harder to deliver better outcomes.
Training adds to your organisation’s wider
knowledge base, and well-trained staff
identify new opportunities and contributeto organisational improvements. It is
win-win for firms, colleagues and clients.
NEW WAYS OF LEARNING
Learning comes in numerous forms. It
can mean traditional off-site classroombased courses, though these days it

is just as likely to mean webinars andclasses delivered online or over Zoom.
Here at UHY, we provide a comprehensive
range of training webinars to ourmember firms around the world,
aimed at continually updating boththe technical and soft skills required
for effective performance, andexpanding the knowledge base of ourglobal network of great people.
But learning and development goesbeyond formal classes and courses. It canencompass, for example, work shadowing
and mentoring. At UHY, we encourage
member firms to offer secondments.
These can fill operational gaps in the shortterm, and build the skills and knowledgeof the individual concerned, as well as
support service delivery to clients.
In our experience, secondment is
especially valuable when it happens
across borders, because it brings our
professionals first-hand knowledge ofthe challenges businesses face when
they internationalise their operations. It
also exposes them to different ways ofsolving problems, and helps us become
more effective advisors to those of ourclients with cross-border ambitions.
But whatever form it takes, we thinkthat lifelong learning has to be at theheart of our business. It creates moreskilled and motivated staff. It means we
can exploit the latest digital accountancy
processes. Most of all, it means ourclients receive a service that is continually
evolving and continually improving. n

24 UHY GLOBAL July 2022

CLIENT STORY

25 YEARS OF SUCCESSFULCOLLABORATIONA GLOBAL CONTACT DATA VALIDATION BUSINESS HAS RELIED ON THE SUPPORTOF UHY MEMBER FIRM UHY CROSSLEYS LLC FOR A QUARTER OF A CENTURY

A

FD are also known as'The Postcode People',
which gives a heavy hint
at their main business line.
The company manages
and distributes address,
geodemographic andgeopolitical data in a rangeof products and services.
This information is vital forthe delivery and efficientmanagement of a wide rangeof commercial, public sector
and third sector operations.
Or, to put it another way, AFD validates
physical addresses, email addresses,
phone numbers and bank data so thatorganisations can efficiently and accurately
serve their customers and service users.
It helps ensure businesses, charities andpublic sector operations of every size havethe clean, validated data they need.

UHY IN THE TECHNOLOGY SECTOR
The rapid pace of change is creating
significant challenge and opportunity
within the technology sector. Experts
from member firms across the UHY
network work with businesses insoftware and systems, hardware andsemiconductor manufacturing, IT
consultancy and help desk support.
Our specialists have also developed
services in cloud computing,hosting, data centre operations andcybersecurity – helping clients to take
opportunities and mitigate risks.

The company's headquarters arenear Ramsey in the Isle of Man, withsubsidiaries in the UK, France and the
US. In addition to data services, the AFD
Group’s portfolio includes children’s
media, a holiday business and a property
and business incubation arm. In fact,
the company developed and owns the
25-acre Mountain View Innovation
Centre just outside Ramsey, the island’s
largest technology park. All together,group turnover is over USD 12 million.
CONSISTENT AND TIMELY ADVICE
AFD started as a home-based business in
Scotland before relocating to the Isle of
Man in 1997. It has grown consistently
since then, through organic expansion andacquisition. The Group has also launchedseveral new activities in that time.
When it first moved to the Isle of Man,
AFD needed an accountancy partner that
could help it manage its growth plans,
and allow it to take full advantage ofthe island’s supportive fiscal framework.
In 1997 the company appointed
UHY Crossleys LLC, and has neverneeded to reconsider that decision.
“UHY Crossleys was appointed mostly
following a recommendation from ourprevious accountants in Scotland,” says
AFD managing director David Dorricott.
“The team at UHY Crossleys has given
consistent and timely advice and support
through 25 years of continuous growth, so
we have never felt the need to change.”
LONGEVITY BRINGS ITS OWN BENEFITS
A quarter of a century with the sameaccountancy partner may be unusual in
the modern corporate world, but David
believes that longevity has brought
its own benefits. The company has
developed a close working relationshipwith principal Andrew Pennington andhis team at UHY Crossleys, nurtured overmany years of successful collaboration.
“The levels of personal service and‘corporate memory’ that we get fromthe stable team at UHY Crossleys
has been a significant benefit to us,”he says. “The team understands ourculture, values and objectives.”
All the Big Four accountancy networks
have a presence on the Isle of Man, but
AFD has never been tempted to switch.
“We would fear that a move would
lose this vital closeness,” says David.
ADDING VALUE EVERY DAY
UHY Crossleys LLC delivers audit, tax,
accountancy and financial advisory
services to AFD. For 25 years it hashelped the company integrate newacquisitions and incorporate new businessservices. UHY Crossleys handles theaccountancy requirements of the main
business and integrates the financial
relationships of its overseas subsidiaries in
the UK, France and the US.
David says that, on top of the everyday
services UHY Crossleys provides, a hugebenefit of their long standing relationshipis the value the accountant adds. UHY
Crossleys knows AFD so well that it canproactively pick up important action
points or suggest new, more fiscallyefficient ways of operating. He adds that
UHY offers great ‘light touch’ support
and always keeps an eye on wider
financial trends.
Most importantly, UHY Crossleys’attention to detail frees David and his teamfor other tasks. “We are an extremely
self-sufficient organisation, as shown by
the fact that we are entering our 40th yearof operation,” he says. “UHY has helped
create the foundation on which we havebeen able to flourish.
“Knowing that their eyes are on items
that need our attention, and that they
will always prompt us for timely action,
has released us to focus on running thebusiness – not running our accounts!” nThe UHY Crossleys
team has given
consistent andtimely advice andsupport through25 years of growth,so we never felt theneed to change.
AFD managing director
David Dorricott.

Original image (c) PGSPORTS2015 and used with permission of AFD Software Ltd

26 UHY GLOBAL July 2022

FEATURE – EUROPEAN RECOVERYEUROPEAN RECOVERY AND‘NEXT GENERATION’ FUNDING
THE EU’S POST-COVID RECOVERY PROCESS HAS KICKSTARTED IMPRESSIVE
COOPERATION WITH A JOINTLY FUNDED ECONOMIC PACKAGE AND
PUBLIC BORROWING PROGRAMME. BUT HOW EFFECTIVE IS IT?

UHY GLOBAL July 2022 27

The Next Generation EU (NGEU) fundcomprises an investment pot worth
around EUR 800bn (USD 858.8bn)*
in current (2022) EU pricing, for postpandemic reforms and investments acrossthe European Union. To access the funds,
member states had to submit a recovery
and resilience plan to the European
Commission, with each beneficiary
agreeing to allocate a minimum of 37%
to climate investments and reforms,
and a minimum of 20% to digitaltransition. Payments are performancebased and dependent on member states
staying true to the plans outlined intheir recovery and resilience plans.
So far, 22 EU countries have been given thegreen light. With money now starting totrickle into the countries, the transformation
will be interesting to observe.

Funding offered by
the EU will offer

SMEs opportunities
in green transitionand digitaltransformation.

DIGITAL FOCUS
Much of the NGEU funding is designed
to create a digital-focused strategy tointroduce innovations that enhance
welfare and support economic
resilience. Priorities include building
a data-driven economy, supporting
improved connectivity, improving digital
infrastructure, and promoting digitaltransition in business and education.
Italy, by far the largest beneficiary of
the EU recovery fund, is set to receive
EUR 191.5bn (USD 205.6bn). Its plansinclude reform of the civil, criminal
justice and insolvency frameworks, andsimplification of the public procurement
system. The National Plan for New Skills
iStock.com/xbrchx

will support women’s entrepreneurshipand boost digitisation of businesses.
With funding worth EUR 70bn
(USD 71.1bn), Spain is set to be thesecond largest NGEU beneficiary. The
country has reportedly allocated
EUR 6.5bn (USD 6.98bn) for electricvehicles and public transport, EUR 7bn(USD 7.5bn) for energy efficiency inbuildings, and EUR 6.9bn (USD 7.4bn)
on renewable energy, all of which thegovernment hopes will help Spain meetits carbon reduction emissions targets.
“We believe that the NextGen funding
provided by the EU will offer SMEs
opportunities in two main areas of green
transition and digital transformation,”says Bernard Fay, co-chair and comanaging partner at UHY Fay & Co,
Spain. “The funds will be administeredby the different regional authorities
in Spain and will most likely take theform of public and private cooperation
projects. One of the requirements willbe the inclusion of SMEs and knowledge
centres, such as universities and R&D[research and development] institutions.”
The challenge and opportunity, Bernardsays, will be how SMEs and entrepreneurs
bring value to these initiatives.
FERTILE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Tourism is one of the key drivers of the
Croatian economy and by 2021 thesector was recovering. Croatia’s recovery
and resilience plan will be financed by
EUR 6.3bn (USD 6.8bn) in grants, someEUR 542m (USD 582.4m) of which will
support businesses in green transition,
sustainable tourism and energy efficiency,
as well as green technologies. Substantial
funds (EUR 126m / USD 135.4m) havealso been earmarked for digitalconnectivity in rural areas, which will beachieved through increasing national
broadband coverage with gigabit
connectivity and improving electronic
communications infrastructure. A further
EUR 84m (USD 90.3m) has been allocatedfor the digitalisation of higher educationand investment in e-learning and digitalteaching tools.
“Our clients are startups (mostly IT sector),
SMEs and universities,” says Vedrana
Miletic’, auditor at Croatian member*Currencies and US dollar equivalents cited in this article are correct at the time of writing.

FEATURE – EUROPEAN RECOVERY

iStock.com/SeanPavonePhotofirm UHY Rudan. “These startups areusing the funding to develop theirbusiness ideas and prepare them forcommercialisation. They’re also using thefunding to upgrade business operations,introduce new production lines andexpand their markets.” Elsewhere,
universities are using the funding tosupport scientific and research projects.

INNOVATION AND
FOREIGN INVESTMENT
Pre-pandemic, Romania was tipped
to become a key innovation hub forCentral and Eastern Europe. Witha growing startup scene, a rapidly
expanding IT workforce, low living
costs and fast internet, the country is
attracting the eyes of global investors.

Economically, it has been beneficial.
“Our clients always point out thatfunding has enabled them to employ
new young people directly within the
project and share experience withother beneficiaries,” says Vedrana.

In the coming years Romania is expected
to benefit from an overall nonreimbursable funding budget of up to EUR
80bn (USD 85.8bn), comprising EU Funds,
NGEU, the National Resilience Programme,
Norway Grants and Romanian stateaid. R&D, investment in manufacturing
infrastructures (plants, new facilities),
information and communications
technology (ICT), and renewable energy
sources are all expected to benefit
from generous funding programmes.

Startups may benefit in a similar way in
Greece, which has successfully requested
EUR 3.6bn (USD 3.9bn; EUR 1.7bn (USD
1.8bn) in grants and the rest in loans) for
reforms and investments in the areas ofenergy efficiency, electric mobility, waste
management, labour market, taxation,business environment, healthcare andpublic transport. Last year was a record
year for startup investment in the
country, with Found.ation and EIT
Digital's Startups in Greece reportfinding that the top 10 startups in 2021
raised a total of EUR 397m (USD 425.9m),
more than triple that raised in 2020. Focus
is now on the sustainability of the local
startup community and the creation ofa thriving ecosystem.

In all funding

applications andensuing projects,
UHY can assist.

Camelia Dobre, managing partner at
UHY Audit CD Srl in Romania, explains:“State aid is one of the most important
tools available for grant-based funding
for foreign investment coming to
Romania in 2022. There are two versionsof the programme, depending on thetype of expenses that a company islooking for – assets or salaries.”
The first of the two schemes is focusedon stimulating investment and allocatedaccording to how developed a region is.
It covers construction works for building
new production facilities, equipment andincorporeal assets (such as softwareand patents). “This programme was oneof the most important funding instruments
for stimulating foreign investment and it
helped develop many new investments
in sectors such as automotive, aviation,
electronics, and home appliance andmanufacturing in general,” says Camelia.
The second scheme is aimed at
stimulating job creation and offers grants

to companies that create more than
100 new jobs by covering a maximumof 50% (depending on region) ofrelated gross salary costs for a periodof two years. This, says Camelia, “isparticularly interesting for such industries
as BPO (outsourcing), ICT, textiles andsome manufacturing niches that are
not heavily dependent on corporeal
assets.” The programmes are open
to both newly established companies
in Romania (including local startups
that are part of large international
corporations) and established companies
already active on the local market.
Businesses that want to access thesefunds have to develop a business planshowing the main elements of theinvestment, market size and technicalaspects, as well as financial projections
showing the role of the grant indeveloping the company and the level oftaxes generated to the state. “It usuallytakes between two and four months
to develop a competitive application,
depending on the investment, and theevaluation process takes between three
weeks and three months,” says Camelia.
HOW UHY IS HELPING
In all funding applications and ensuing
projects, UHY can assist, both locallyand across borders. In Spain, UHY
Fay & Co is proactive in identifying
opportunities for its clients to benefit
from the NGEU programme. “Wehave developed a centre of excellence
around Environmental, Social andGovernance (ESG) and sustainability,
offering national and international
clients a wide range of services to
unlock new value on their path to asustainable future,” says Bernard.
In Romania, Camelia says UHY Audit
CD Srl is able to assist foreign andlocal investors throughout the project
development process: “We can help toidentify the right funding solutions fortheir investments, analyse their eligibility
in the context of the programme andoffer consultancy throughout – fromdeveloping the funding application
to effectively implementing the
project and securing the grant.” n
For more information on UHY’s capabilities,
email the UHY executive office,info@uhy.com, or visit www.uhy.com

THE NETWORK FOR DOING BUSINESS - DIRECTORY

UHY GLOBAL July 2022 29

GLOBAL MEMBERS DIRECTORY
We are a Top 20 global accountancy
network* and our success is built on
attentive, personal service. You will find UHY
member firms ready to advise you in morethan 100 countries, covering nearly 340
major business centres. We have over 8,900
professionals delivering world class solutions
across all types of industry. And ourconnectedness means we can find solutions
for you and your business, by calling on thevast experience of UHY colleagues
worldwide. Our UHY Global member firm
directory pages will show you where we are.
*International Accounting Bulletin World Survey 2022.
UHY International ranks 20th largest accountancy
network by fee income.
AFGHANISTANUHY Shafiq Umar Daraz & Co Chartered
Accountants, Kabul
Contact: Muhammad Shafiq
Email: mshafiq@uhy-af.com
Website: www.uhy-af.com
ALBANIAUHY Elite sh.p.k, Tirana
Contact: Artan Xhiani
Email: info@uhy-elite.com
Website: www.uhy-elite.com
ANGOLA
UHY A Paredes e Associados-Angola
Auditores e Consultores, S.A., Luanda
Contact: Armando Paredes
Email: aparedes@uhyangola.com
Website: www.uhyangola.com
ARGENTINA
UHY Macho & Asociados,* Buenos Aires
Contact: Roberto Macho
Email: rmacho@uhy-macho.com
Website: www.uhy-macho.com
Also in: Tucumán
AUSTRALIAUHY Haines Norton
Contact: Michael Coughtrey
Email: mcoughtrey@uhyhnsyd.com.au
Website: www.uhyhn.com
Offices in: Adelaide, Brisbane*, Busselton, Dunsborough,Gladstone, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney*
AUSTRIAUHY-Tax Wirtschaftstreuhand GmbH, Linz
Contact: Stephan Schlager
Email: office@uhy.at
Website: www.uhy.at
Also in: Horn, Salzburg, Vienna, Villach
AZERBAIJAN
UHY Audit LLC, Baku
Contact: Hashim Aliyev
Email: office@uhy-az.com
Website: www.uhy-az.com
BAHRAINUHY El Sayed El Ayouty & Co,
Certified Public Accountants, Bahrain
Contact: Mohamed Alshayeb
Email: info@uhy-elayouty.com
Website: www.uhy-elayouty.com
BANGLADESHUHY Syful Shamsul Alam & Co, Dhaka
Contact: Syful Islam
Email: syful@ssacbd.com
Website: www.ssacbd.com
Also in: Chittagong
BELARUSUHY BusinessCollegia LLC, Minsk
Contact: Denis Kastsian
Email: audit@collegia.by
Website: www.uhy-bc.by

BELGIUM
UHY-CDP Partners, Brussels
Contact: Chantal Bollen
Email: c.bollen@cdp-partners.be
Website: www.cdp-partners.be
Also in: Liège

CZECH REPUBLIC
AUDITOR, spol. s r.o., Prague
Contact: Georg Stöger
Email: georg.stoeger@auditor.eu
Website: www.auditor.eu
Also in: Brno, Pelhrimov

BOLIVIAHBA S.R.L, La Paz *Contact: Marcia Berthin
Email: MBerthin@uhyberthin.com
Website: www.berthinamengual.com
Also in: Santa Cruz *DENMARK
inforevision, Copenhagen
Contact: Vibeke Düring Reyes Jensen
Email: vd@inforevision.dk
Website: www.inforevision.dk

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINAUHY Revident d.o.o., Mostar
Contact: Matko Knezevic
Email: matko.knezevic@uhy-ba.com
Website: www.uhy-ba.com
Also in: Grude, Sarajevo
BRAZILUHY Bendoraytes & Cia – Auditores Independentes*,São Paulo
Contact: Franklin Bendoraytes
Email: franklin.bendoraytes@uhy-br.com
Website: www.bendoraytes.com
Also in: Londrina, Rio de Janeiro
CANADAUHY Victor LLP, Montreal
Contact: Ken Shemie
Email: kshemie@uhyvictor.com
Website: www.uhyvictor.com
UHY Forbes Andersen LLP, Toronto
Contact: Paul Andersen
Email: paul@fa.ca
Website: www.forbesandersen.com
Also in: Milton
CHILE
UHY Guiñazú & Asociados SpA.,* Santiago
Contact: Ximena Guiñazú.
Email: xguinazu@uhy-cl.com
Website: www.guinazuasociados.cl
CHINA
ZhongHua Certified Public Accountants LLP,* Shanghai
Contact: Liqian Sun
Email: info@zhonghuacpa.com
Website: www.zhonghuacpa.com
Also in: Anhui, Beijing, Guangdong, Hangzhou, Henan,
Jiangsu, Shenzhen, Sichuan, Yunnan
COLOMBIAUHY Consultores S.A.S., Bogotà
Contact: Diego Charry
Email: diego.charry@uhy-co.com
Website: www.uhy-co.com
COSTA RICA
UHY Auditores y Consultores, S.A., San José
Contact: Omar Pérez Rosales
Email: operez@uhy-cr.com
Website: www.uhy-cr.com

DOMINICAN REPUBLICUHY Calderon Gonzalez & Asociados,
Santo Domingo
Contact: Arabellis Calderón González
Email: arabellis.calderon@uhy.com.do
Website: www.uhy.com.do
ECUADORUHY Assurance & Services Cia. Ltda., Quito
Contact: Freddy Cevallos Bustamante
Email: f.cevallos@uhyecuador.ec
Website: www.uhyecuador.ec
EGYPT
UHY United For Auditing, Tax, Advisory& Financial Services, Cairo
Contact: Ahmed Hegazy
Email: info@uhy-united.com
Website: www.uhy-egypt.com
UHY Waled Mounir and Muhammad
Arafa, Alexandria
Contact: Waled Mounir
Email: info@uhy-eg-alex.com
Website: www.uhy-egypt.com
EL SALVADORUHY Asesores Y Consultores, S.A De CV., San Salvador
Contact: Bryan Pérez
Email: bperez@uhy-sv.com
Website: www.uhy-sv.com
FRANCEUHY GVA,* Paris
Contact: Emmanuel Gayte
Email: emmanuel.gayte@uhygva.com
Website: www.uhygva.com
Also in: Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Saint-Denis De La
Réunion, Toulouse
GEORGIAUHY LLC, Tbilisi
Contact: Guka Ubiria
Email: gubiria@uhy-ge.com
Website: www.uhy.ge
GERMANYUHY Deutschland AG* Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
Contact: Dr Ulla Peters
Email: berlin@uhy-berlin.de
Website: www.uhy-deutschland.de

CROATIAUHY HB EKONOM d.o.o., Split
Contact: Helena Budisa
Email: split@uhy.hr
Website: www.uhyincroatia.com

Clostermann & Jasper Partnerschaft mbB, Bremen
Contact: Tobias Stuber
Email: info@clostermann-jasper.de
Website: www.clostermann-jasper.de
Also in: Hamburg

UHY RUDAN d.o.o., Zagreb
Contact: Vedrana Miletić
Email: info@uhy.rudan.hr
Website: www.uhyincroatia.com

Dr. Langenmayr GmbH
Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, MunichContact: Johannes Bitzer
Email: munich@uhy-deutschland.de
Website: www.dr-langenmayr.de

CYPRUSUHY Antonis Kassapis Limited, Nicosia
Contact: Antonis Kassapis
Email: uhy@uhy.com.cy
Website: www.uhy.com.cy

Dr. Leyh, Dr. Kossow & Dr. Ott OHG, Cologne
Contact: Thomas Wahlen
Email: koeln@lko.de
Website: www.lko.deTHE NETWORK FOR DOING BUSINESS - DIRECTORY

30 UHY GLOBAL July 2022

UHY Lauer & Dr. Peters KG*, Berlin
Contact: Dr Ulla Peters
Email: berlin@uhy-berlin.de
Website: www.uhy-berlin.deAlso in: Rostock
UHY Wahlen & Mannsky, Frankfurt
Contact: Stephanie Mannsky
Email: stephanie.mannsky@uhy-ffm.com
Website: www.uhy-wahlen.de
GHANA
UHY Voscon Chartered Accountants, Accra
Contact: Henry Djangmah
Email: info@uhyvoscon-gh.com
Website: www.uhyvoscon-gh.com
UHY Godwinson (Chartered Accountants), Accra
Contact: Godwin Azasu
Email: info@uhygodwinson-gh.com
Website: www.uhygodwinson-gh.com
GREECEUHY Axon Certified Auditors S.A., Athens
Contact: Stavros Nikiforakis
Email: info@axonaudit.gr
Website: www.axonaudit.gr
Also in: Crete

IRELANDUHY Farrelly Dawe White Limited, Dundalk
Contact: Alan Farrelly
Email: alanfarrelly@fdw.ie
Website: www.fdw.ie
Also in: Balbriggan, Dublin, Newry
ISLE OF MAN
UHY Crossleys LLC, Ballasalla
Contact: Andrew Pennington
Email: apennington@crossleys.com
Website: www.crossleys.com
ISRAELUHY Shtainmetz Aminoach & Co.,* Tel Aviv
Contact: Kobi Shtainmetz
Email: k@cpa.co.il
Website: www.cpa.co.il
ITALY
UHY Audinet Srl, RomeContact: Andrea D’Amico
Email: a.damico@uhyaudinet.com
Website: www.uhyaudinet.com
Also in: Florence, Padua
UHY Associati S.t.p.r.l. (Accounting, Payroll & Tax), Milan
Contact: Sabino Dente
Email: associati@uhyassociati.com
Website: www.uhyassociati.com

GUATEMALAUHY Pérez & Co,* Guatemala City
Contact: Omar Pérez Rosales
Email: operez@uhy-perez.com
Website: www.uhy-perez.com

FiderConsult Srl (Tax & Accounting), Florence
Contact: Simone Biagiotti
Email: s.biagiotti@uhyitaly.com
Website: www.uhyitaly.com
Also in: Milan, RomeHONDURASUHY Auditores y Consultores, S.A., Tegucigalpa
Contact: Omar Pérez Rosales
Email: operez@uhy-hn.com
Website: www.uhy-hn.com

JAPAN
UHY Tokyo & Co., Tokyo
Contact: Nobuyuki Hara
Email: info@uhy-tokyo.or.jp
Website: www.uhy-tokyo.or.jp
Also in: Kyoto, Nagoya

HONG KONG
Tai Kong CPA Limited,* Hong Kong
Contact: Robert Kong
Email: robertkong@tkcpa.com.hk
Website: www.tkcpa.com.hk

JORDANUHY Arab Auditors, Amman
Contact: Nabil Haddad
Email: nih@arabauditors.jo
Website: www.arabauditors.jo

UHY-Advisory and Secretarial Knowledge Limited
Contact: Allan Kong
Email: allankong@uhy-ask.com
Website: www.uhy-ask.com

KAZAKHSTANUHY SAPA-Consulting LLP, Almaty
Contact: Torebek Kurmanov
Email: office@uhy-kz.com
Website: www.uhy-kz.com
Also in: Aktobe, Astana, Atyrau, Shymkent, Ural’sk

UHY Prime HK CPA Limited,* Hong Kong
Contact: Michael Tsang
Email: michaeltsang@uhy-hk.com
Website: www.uhy-hk.com
HUNGARY
Bergmann Accounting & Auditing, Budapest
Contact: László Hegedus
Email: laszlo.hegedus@bergmann.hu
Website: www.bergmann.hu
Also in: Szeged
INDIA
Chandabhoy & Jassoobhoy, Mumbai
Contact: Sunil Hansraj
Email: sunil@cnj.in
Website: www.cnj.in
Lodha & Co,* Kolkata
Contact: R.P. Singh
Email: rpsingh@lodhaco.com
Website: www.lodhaco.com
Also in: Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mumbai, New Delhi

KENYA
UHY Kenya, Nairobi
Contact: Daniel Kabiru
Email: dkabiru@uhy-ke.com
Website: www.uhy-ke.com
KOREA, REPUBLIC OFUHY Daeyoung Accounting Corp., Seoul
Contact: Sam Shin
Email: skshin@daeyoungcpa.com
Website: www.daeyoungcpa.co.kr
Also in: Incheon
KUWAIT
UHY Pillars Advisory, Kuwait City
Contact: Wael Arafa
Email: wael@uhypillars.com
Website: www.uhypillars.com
LEBANON
UHY Andy Bryan, Beirut
Contact: Elie Abboud
Email: beirut@uhy-lb.com
Website: www.uhy-lb.com

INDONESIAKAP Hananta Budianto & Rekan, Jakarta
Contact: Venancia Wijono
Email: venancia@hananta.com
Website: www.hananta.com
Also in: Semarang, Surabaya

LUXEMBOURG
UHY Finova S.àr.l., Luxembourg
Contact: Jürgen Fischer
Email: j.fischer@finova.lu
Website: www.uhyfinova.lu

IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF
Hadi Hesab Tehran, Tehran
Contact: Hamid Reza Keyhani
Email: keyhani@hadihesab.com
Website: www.uhy-ir.com

MALAYSIA
UHY,* Kuala Lumpur
Contact: Datuk Alvin TeeEmail: uhy-kl@uhy-my.com
Website: www.uhy.com.my
Also in: Johor Bahru, Labuan, Penang

MALTA
UHY Pace, Galea Musù & Co, Lija
Contact: David Pace
Email: djpace@uhymalta.com
Website: www.uhymalta.com
MAURITIUS
UHY & Co., Moka
Contact: Dominique Samouilhan
Email: dsamouilhan@uhy.co.mu
Website: www.uhy.co.mu
MEXICOUHY Glassman Esquivel y Cía S.C.,* Mexico City
Contact: Oscar Gutiérrez Esquivel
Email: oge@uhy-mx.com
Website: www.uhy-mx.com
Also in: Monterrey, Querétaro, Villahermosa
MOROCCOUHY Ben Mokhtar & Co, TangierContact: Mohamed Ben Mokhtar
Email: contact@uhy-benmokhtar.ma
Website: www.uhy-benmokhtar.ma
UHY Maroc Decisionnel, Casablanca
Contact: Hassan Darbane
Email: h.darbane@maroc-decisionnel.com
Website: www.maroc-decisionnel.com
MOZAMBIQUE
UHY Auditores e Contabilistas Certificados,
Limitada, Maputo
Contact: Carlos Sitoe
Email: director.geral@uhy-mz.com
Website: www.uhy-mz.com
NEPAL
UHY Suvod Associates Chartered Accountants,
Kathmandu
Contact: Akash Suman
Email: akash@suvodassociates.com.np
Website: www.suvodassociates.com.np
Also in: Itahari
NETHERLANDSUHY Netherlands, Amsterdam
Contact: Bas Pijnaker
Email: Pijnaker@govers.nl
Website: www.uhynetherlands.com
Govers Accountants/Consultants,* Eindhoven
Contact: Paul Mencke
Email: mencke@govers.nl
Website: www.govers.nl
TIC Advisory B.V. Leusden
Contact: Jos Raben
Email: jraben@tic-advisory.nl
Website: www.tic-advisory.nl
NEW ZEALAND
UHY Haines Norton (Auckland) Ltd,* Auckland
Contact: Grant Brownlee
Email: grantb@uhyhn.co.nz
Website: www.uhyhn.co.nz
Also in: Helensville, Kumeu
NICARAGUA
UHY Auditores y Consultores S.A, Managua
Contact: Bryan Pérez
Email: bperez@uhy-ni.com
Website: www.uhy-ni.com
NIGERIAUHY Maaji & Co, Lagos
Contact: Gabriel Idahosa
Email: info@uhy-ng-maaji.com
Website: www.uhy-ng-maaji.com
Also in: Abuja, Benin City, Ebutte Metta, Ejigbo, Garki, Kaduna,Kano, Lokoja, Maiduguri, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Wuse, Yola
NORWAY
Revisorgruppen AS, Oslo
Contact: Kirsti Armann
Email: post@rg.no
Website: www.rg.no
Also in: Akershus, Åndalsnes, Arendal, Bergen, Drammen,
Førde, Kristiansand, Kvam/Norheimsund, Sarpsborg

THE NETWORK FOR DOING BUSINESS - DIRECTORYPAKISTAN
UHY Hassan Naeem & Co, Lahore
Contact: Ibne Hassan
Email: ibnehassan@uhy-hnco.com
Website: www.uhy-hnco.com
Also in: Islamabad, Karachi
PANAMAUHY Botello & Marquez, Panama City
Contact: Diógenes Botello V.
Email: dbotello@uhy-pa.com
Website: www.uhy-pa.com
PERU
UHY Blancas Sandoval & Asociados, SAC,* Lima
Contact: Carlos Hugo Sandoval Zapata
Email: carlos.sandoval@uhy-bsa.com
Website: www.uhy-bsa.com
Also in: Miraflores (Lima), San Borja (Lima), Surco (Lima)
PHILIPPINESUHY M.L. Aguirre & Co. CPAs,* Makati City
Contact: Michael Aguirre
Email: ask@mlaguirre.org
Website: www.mlaguirre.org
POLANDUHY ECA Group, Warsaw
Contact: Michal Kolosowski
Email: michal.kolosowski@uhy-pl.com
Website: www.uhy-pl.com’
Also in: Kraków, Poznan,
Warsaw, Wroclaw, Zabrze
PORTUGALUHY Oliveira, Branco & Associados SROC Lda, Lisbon
Contact: António Oliveira
Email: geral.lisboa@uhy-portugal.pt
Website: www.uhy-portugal.pt
Also in: Azores, Funchal, Porto
PUERTO RICOUHY Del Valle & Nieves PSC,* San Juan
Contact: Rafael Del Valle-Vega
Email: info@uhy-pr.com
Website: www.uhy-pr.com
QATAR
UHY Ammo & Co, DohaContact: Moomen Elsalawy
Email: inquiry@uhy-qa.com
Website: www.uhy-qa.com
ROMANIAUHY Audit CD S.r.l., Bucharest
Contact: Camelia Dobre
Email: camelia.dobre@uhy-ro.com
Website: www.uhy-ro.com
SAINT LUCIA
UHY A.P. Walcott and Associates, Castries
Contact: Anthony Walcott
Email: awalcott@uhy-lc.com
Website: www.uhy-lc.com
SAUDI ARABIAUHY RIYADH BIN BULAYHID OFFICE, RIYADHContact: Elsayed Elboussery
Email: info@riyadhaudit.com
Website: www.riyadhaudit.com
Also in: Dammam, Jeddah
SERBIAUHY REVIZIJA d.o.o., BelgradeContact: Jasmina Macura
Email: ekirevizija@uhy-ekirevizija.rs
Website: www.uhy-ekirevizija.rs
SEYCHELLES
UHY Premier Financial Services Limited, Mahé
Contact: Vimal Damry
Email: vimal@premier-seychelles.com
Website: www.premier-seychelles.com

SINGAPORE
UHY Lee Seng Chan & Co,* Singapore
Contact: Sen Choon Lee
Email: info@uhylsc.com.sg
Website: www.uhylsc.com.sg
SLOVAK REPUBLIC
AUDITOR SK s.r.o., Bratislava
Contact: Georg Stöger
Email: georg.stoeger@auditor.eu
Website: www.auditor.eu
SLOVENIA
UHY d.o.o., Ljubljana
Contact: Franci Žgajnar
Email: uhy@uhy.si
Website: www.uhy.si
SOUTH AFRICA
UHY Hellmann (SA), Johannesburg
Contact: Carlos Pedregal
Email: carlosp@uhy.co.za
Website: www.uhy.co.za
SPAIN
UHY Fay & Co,* Marbella
Contact: Bernard Fay
Email: bfay@uhy-fay.com
Website: www.uhy-fay.com
Also in: Barcelona, Madrid*, Malaga, Santa Cruz Tenerife,
Santander, Santiago de Compostela
SRI LANKA
UHY Centra Management Associates, Colombo
Contact: Ismath Abdul Sathar Mohamed
Email: asmismath@uhycentra.com
Website: www.uhycentra.com
Also in: Kandy
SWEDEN
Revisorerna Syd, Malmö
Contact: Mattias Nilsson
Email: info@revisorernasyd.se
Website: www.revisorernasyd.se
Winthers Revisionsbyrå AB, Stockholm
Contact: Ragnar Santesson
Email: info@winthers.se
Website: www.winthers.se
SWITZERLAND
Balmer-Etienne AG, Luzern
Contact: Stefan Wigger
Email: info@balmer-etienne.ch
Website: www.balmer-etienne.ch
Also in: Stans, ZürichTAIWANUHY L&C Company, CPAs, Taipei
Contact: Lawrence Lin
Email: lawrencelin@uhy-taiwan.com.tw
Website: www.uhy-taiwan.com.tw
THAILANDUHY Yongyuth Accounting
and Son Co., Ltd., Bangkok
Contact: Panit Mokarakorn
Email: panityas@uhy-th.com
Website: www.uhy-th.com
TUNISIAUHY CNBA, Tunis
Contact: Raoudha Ben Abdelkrim
Email: r.trojet@uhy-cnba.com
Website: www.uhy-cnba.com
TURKEYUHY UZMAN Sworn in CPA andIndependent Auditing Inc., Istanbul
Contact: Şenol Çudin
Email: uzman@uhy-uzman.com.tr
Website: www.uhy-uzman.com.tr
Also in: Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir

UHY GLOBAL July 2022 31

UGANDAUHY Thakkar & Associates, Certified Public
Accountants, Kampala
Contact: Sam Thakkar
Email: sam@uhy-ug.com
Website: www.uhy-ug.com
UKRAINE
UHY Prostor Ltd, Kyiv
Contact: Alexander Koinov
Email: a.koinov@uhy-prostor.com
Website: www.uhy-prostor.com
UNITED ARAB EMIRATESUHY James Chartered Accountants, Dubai
Contact: James Mathew
Email: james.mathew@uhy-ae.com
Website: www.uhy-ae.com
Also in: Abu Dhabi, Fujairah, Sharjah
UNITED KINGDOMUHY Hacker Young,* London
Contact: Subarna Banerjee
Email: london@uhy-uk.com
Website: www.uhy-uk.com
Also in: Abergavenny, Abingdon, Ashford, Belfast,
Birmingham*, Brighton & Hove, Bristol, Broadstairs,
Cambridge, Chester, Hungerford, Huntingdon, Letchworth,
Manchester*, Newbury, Newport, Nottingham, Sheffield,
Sittingbourne, Swindon, Winchester, YorkUNITED STATESUHY Advisors, Inc., Farmington Hills, Michigan
UHY LLP,* New York
Contact: Michael Mahoney
Email: mmahoney@uhy-us.com
Website: www.uhy-us.com
Also in: Albany (New York), Ames (Iowa), Ann Arbor(Michigan), Atlanta (Georgia), Catskill (New York), Columbia(Maryland), Des Moines (Iowa), Detroit (Michigan),
Farmington (Connecticut), Farmington Hills (Michigan),
Houston (Texas), Hudson (New York), Kansas City (Missouri),Kingston (New York), Long Island (New York), Miami(Florida), New York City (New York), Orange County(California), Port Huron (Michigan), Rye Brook (New York),
Salisbury (Maryland), Saratoga Springs (New York), St Louis(Missouri), Sterling Heights (Michigan), Woodland Hills(California). UHY LLP is a licensed independent CPA firmthat performs attest services through an alternative practice
structure with UHY Advisors, Inc. and its subsidiary entities.
UHY Advisors, Inc. provides tax and business consulting
services through wholly owned subsidiary entities that
operate under the name of “UHY Advisors”.
URUGUAYUHY Gubba & Asociados,* Montevideo
Contact: Hugo Gubba
Email: info@uhygubba.uy
Website: www.uhygubba.uy
UZBEKISTANUHY Tashkent LLC, Tashkent
Contact: Sarvarkhon Karimov
Email: s.karimov@uhy-uz.com
Website: www.uhy-uz.com
Also in: Khorezm, Navoi
VENEZUELAUHY Servicios Legales & Tributarios, S.C., Caracas
Contact: Luis Sotillo
Email: l.sotillo@uhy-ve.com
Website: www.uhy-ve.com
Also in: Puerto Ordaz, Valencia*
VIETNAMUHY Auditing & Consulting Co. Ltd., Hanoi
Contact: Thanh Nguyen
Email: thanhnt@uhyvietnam.com.vn
Website: www.uhy.vn
Also in: Ho Chi Minh CityZAMBIA
UHY AMO Certified Public Accountants, Lusaka
Contact: Dion Banda Dault
Email: d.banda@uhy-amocpa.com
Website: www.uhy-amocpa.com* UHY firms asterisked signifies that they are registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). They are enabled under section 102 of the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 to
prepare or issue audit reports on US public companies and their subsidiaries abroad. Under section 103 of the Act, the PCAOB has established auditing and related attestation quality control, ethics
and independence standards, and rules to be used by registered public accounting firms, in the preparation and issuance of audit reports.

LET US HELP YOU ACHIEVEFURTHER BUSINESS SUCCESS
To find out how UHY can assist yourbusiness, contact any of our member
firms. You can visit us online atwww.uhy.com to find contact details
for all of our offices, or email us at
info@uhy.com for further information.

UHY is an international network of legally independentaccounting and consultancy firms whose administrative
entity is Urbach Hacker Young International Limited,a UK company. UHY is the brand name for the UHYinternational network. Services to clients are provided
by member firms and not by Urbach Hacker Young
International Limited. Neither Urbach Hacker Young
International Limited, the UHY network, nor any
member of UHY has any liability for services provided
by other members. © 2022 UHY International Ltd.
The editorial opinions expressed in the magazine may
not necessarily be those of UHY International Ltd or its
member firms. Every effort is made to ensure accuracy
but the publishers cannot be held responsible for errors
or omissions. Currencies and US dollar equivalents
cited in UHY Global are correct at the time of writing.
Exchange rates will vary over time. No part of thismagazine may be reproduced in any form without
prior permission of UHY International Ltd. We thankall contributors. Design: Flex with UHY International.
Editorial: Flex with UHY International.
Photography supplied by UHY member firms,
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