Thus, of the Big Five, only Deloitte is committed to remaining a single firm. Deloitte has created a separate consulting business. With Coopers the second- largest accounting firm in SA and PW the sixth largest, the merged PwC is now SA's largest. Arthur Andersen, the smallest of the Big Five, probably had fee income of about R250m, though it provides no information. The remaining third is from tax-related work.
Many obstacles lie in the way of the expansion of the professional service firms.
They do not sell a tangible product but a diverse set of sophisticated services. Constraints of regulation and culture make it hard to get national partnerships to work smoothly under one set of values. Providing full legal service is perhaps the last frontier. The co-operation between accountancy and legal firms is a prickly issue in the legal profession. The SA Law Society has debated the merger issue, but has reached no conclusion.