Accounting/Consulting

Faced with strong competition for talent and the prospect of an economic slowdown, companies are beefing up chief financial officers’ responsibilities or elevating their positions altogether to retain top executives.Demand for finance chiefs continues to be high as U.S. businesses face volatile stock markets, soaring inflation and rising interest rates. CFO turnover at companies in the S&P 500 rose to 18% last year, compared to 15% the year before and 14% in 2019, according to Russell Reynolds Associates, an executive…

CHICAGO—Whole Foods Market aims to re-emphasize its messages on sustainability and food quality as the grocer emerges from the pandemic, the company’s incoming chief executive said at The Wall Street Journal’s Global Food Forum on Tuesday.Jason Buechel, who is set to take over later this year as Whole Foods’ next chief executive, said there were many distractions during the pandemic, adding that as the new CEO he wants to build on the grocer’s quality standards and efforts to bring products to market. CHICAGO—Whole…

Concerns about rising inflation and slowing growth are putting the spotlight on an accounting method U.S. companies use to lower their federal tax bill by inflating their costs, which also squeezes their quarterly earnings.Companies including grocery chain Kroger Co. in recent weeks have said their use of last-in, first-out accounting, or LIFO, has increased costs and dented earnings. With LIFO—which is permitted under the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, but not under…

Ernst & Young’s leaders, trying to persuade partners to split up the firm, said windfalls would be spread evenly, but a bear market threatens to cut the value of a potential initial public offering of its consulting business, according to an internal webcast and people familiar with the matter.Speaking to EY’s roughly 13,000 partners Monday, Global Chairman and Chief Executive Carmine Di Sibio said that the firm would give all partners in a country the same multiple of pay, according…

A bankruptcy judge approved a chapter 11 exit plan for Latam Airlines Group SA that puts $5.44 billion of fresh capital into the Chilean business, moving it closer to ending its pandemic-driven restructuring after two years. Judge James Garrity of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York said the chapter 11 plan resulted from “good faith, arm’s-length negotiations” among Latam and its stakeholders and provides the best available path to resolve its bankruptcy case.…

LOS ANGELES—Ahead of the year’s biggest gambling event, FanDuel Group Chief Executive Amy Howe was spreading her message of confidence in the U.S. sports-betting industry in interviews with journalists.Behind her, sports broadcaster Pat McAfee —whom the company is paying $120 million over four years to be its media star—appeared to be taking tequila shots with former Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith on the…

Deloitte is exploring a plan to split its global audit and consulting practices, following an effort by fellow Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young to potentially spin off its consulting arm, according to people familiar with the matter.The moves would mark the biggest shake-up in the accounting industry in decades, handing windfalls to tens of thousands of the firms’ partners and creating two new consulting giants and two stripped-down auditing firms. Deloitte reached out to investment bankers at…

I thought it would be fun. That’s what I told my friend Mack when I asked her to drive with me from New Orleans to Chicago and back in an electric car.I’d made long road trips before, surviving popped tires, blown headlights and shredded wheel-well liners in my 2008 Volkswagen Jetta. I figured driving the brand-new Kia EV6 I’d rented would be a piece of cake. If, that is, the public-charging infrastructure cooperated. We wouldn’t be the first to test it. Sales…

Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young is considering a world-wide split of its audit and advisory businesses amid regulatory scrutiny of potential conflicts of interest in the profession, according to people familiar with the matter.A split would be the biggest structural change at a Big Four firm since Arthur Andersen fell apart some 20 years ago. The potential move would create two giant professional firms. EY last year had global revenue of $40 billion, of which $13.6 billion came from audit work. How…

KPMG LLP agreed to pay a fine after the Financial Reporting Council found shortfalls in its audit of Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC, the British jet engine manufacturer that settled bribery allegations in 2017. The U.K. audit regulator on Tuesday said it imposed sanctions of £3.4 million—equivalent to $4.2 million—against the professional-services firm and £112,500 against audit partner Anthony Sykes. The investigation, which the FRC announced in 2017, focused on…