“So far, we have gotten used to a business growth rate of some 30 percent. The current increase seems modest, but is very good considering new market conditions. The first quarter of 2009 is a good one for us. We are not far from our estimates of a rise of about 10 percent. We expect to register a slowdown in the second quarter, because we focus our activity on orders and pre-negotiated deals, and these are becoming increasingly fewer,” Ahmed Hassan, Partner of Deloitte Romania on the audit segment and Chairman of the Board of Deloitte Central Europe, told Business Standard.
Deloitte is providing audit services for four in ten of the largest companies in Romania in terms of net sales, and has a 25 percent market share on the top 100 local enterprise segment. The drop in business on certain segments, such as consultancy for mergers and acquisitions (M&A), is compensated by increasingly higher demand for other business lines – tax consultancy, advisory services for financing and debt restructuring, and public projects.
Hassan added that taxes are a steady business for a consultancy company, as it does not depend directly on a firm’s dimension, unlike the M&A field, where the cashed in percentage is strictly related to the value of the transaction.
