Last Orders

So the drink-related brinksmanship has come to a not-so-bitter end as Scottish and Newcastle is punted offshore for £7.8bn.

It’s the latest in a long line of Scottish and British companies that have been taken over by foreign owners and as much as I believe in free, open markets, I can’t help but think it a shame that Scandinavians control our beer and Spaniards control our energy and so on.

But, we’re all one big happy family the world over so I’m sure the Kronenburg and San Miguel will still be flowing long into 2008 and beyond.

No, what really concerns me is one very big knock-on effect of today’s announcement.


It’s no secret that Ernst and Young are the auditors of Scottish & Newcastle and not much of a secret that they rely on S&N for a very large slice of their income.

Now, KPMG audit both of Carlsberg and Heineken so it’s not a wild leap into the unimaginable to envisage that KPMG will be the auditors of S&N before too long. Infact, this ‘referred work’ is common practise among the Big 4.

And it is this very phrase “Big 4” that has me somewhat concerned as without S&N as a major client or any other sizeable client to take its place, Ernst and Young (Edinburgh) may have to be merged into Ernst and Young (Glasgow) meaning there would only be a “Big 3” in Scotland’s capital.


Keep in mind that Edinburgh is the fifth largest city economy in Europe but how would her reputation suffer on the global stage if it can’t even attract all four of the major accountancy firms to its streets?