Grant Thornton International has appointed a new Hong Kong member firm after its existing operation in the city became embroiled in lawsuits related to its former missing boss Gabriel Ricardo Dias-Azedo.
The new firm, Jingdu Tianhua Hong Kong, has been set up by Grant Thornton's mainland firm and is headed by Daniel Lin Ching-yee. It has five partners and 60 staff in Hong Kong and will work with the larger Grant Thornton operation in the mainland where it has 65 partners and 1,500 staff.
The firm has applied to the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the city's accountancy regulator, to adopt the Grant Thornton name some time next year. Grant Thornton is one of the world's leading networks of independently owned and managed accounting and consulting firms
The existing Grant Thornton's Hong Kong member firm will cease operation at the end of this year after an exodus of more than 600 accountants to rival BDO.
Grant Thornton International global leadership board member Alex MacBeath denied its decision to cut links with the existing Hong Kong member firm was related to the lawsuits involving Azedo, but said it was a result of disagreement with the existing firm's partners on how to expand in the mainland.
MacBeath said Grant Thornton International took the mainland market very seriously and wanted the Hong Kong member firm to work with Grant Thornton in China as a single unit.