Accounting: Stalking the Big Four

Homegrown auditors are eroding the influence of established western firms in China.

When Zhang Ke left Coopers & Lybrand in 1999 to set up his own accounting firm, some doubted the upstart would survive. Outside Coopers - now part of PwC - and the other big western outfits, the profession in China was weak. This did not deter Mr Zhang. "I thought China was so big, it should have some of its own accounting firms," he recalls.

Little more than a decade later, the gamble has paid off. ShineWing, the firm he started, is snapping at the heels of the industry's biggest names in China and the avuncular, soft-spoken Mr Zhang has become perhaps the most influential accountant in the land. " He is the dean of the accounting profession right now in China," says Paul Gillis, a professor at Peking University. " He's the guy."

The viability of Chinese expansion abroad is being tested by ShineWing. Unusually, it has expanded on its own into Australia, Singapore and Japan. "Our main clients, the big listed companies and state-owned enterprises, are going abroad. We have to follow," says Mr Zhang ... READ MORE

Released by the Financial Times - 16 April 2013