SyCip Gorres Velayo & Co.

SyCip Gorres Velayo & Co. (SGV & Co.) is a member practice of Ernst & Young and the Philippines' largest multidisciplinary professional services firm with eight offices across the country.

The Firm employs over 1,800 professionals in 2007 from various disciplines. The Firm provides integrated solutions that draw on diverse and deep competencies in assurance, tax, risk consulting, and corporate finance. The Firm upholds the highest standards of quality. In fact, SGV & Co. remains the only ISO 9002-certified professional services firm in the Philippines since 1996.

SGV & Co.'s track record has remained unmatched in the region. It has accumulated invaluable resources over 60 years of operation - highly qualified and competent staff, state-of-the-art facilities, and an enviable international network.

SGV & Co. became an affiliate of Ernst & Young International on June 6, 2002. Ernst & Young, a global leader in professional services, understands the business issues that are important to senior executives. With extensive business knowledge and hands-on industry experience, the global Ernst & Young organization can implement a broad array of solutions to help companies capture growth, improve financial performance and manage risk - anywhere in the world. Its 100,000 people serve as trusted business advisers in more than 130 countries.

Services

• Assurance & Advisory Business Services

SGV & Co. provide assurances to management, corporate directors, investors, lenders, and others. These include assurances on the reliability of financial and nonfinancial information, business processes and controls, regulatory compliance, and information used in strategic transactions.

• Business Risk Services

SGV provide solutions to help companies understand and manage their business risks better and improve business processes and controls through value-adding internal audit solutions and enterprise risk management services.

• Corporate Finance

SGV assist clients in creating, enhancing, and maximizing enterprise value by originating and executing transactions, such as mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures; facilitating access to capital markets; devising strategies to optimize the value of real estate assets; and developing restructuring programs.

• Tax Services

SGV help businesses maximize value by identifying and implementing comprehensive strategies for corporate, international, indirect, and local taxes. Additionally, we provide services to help individuals and families build and preserve wealth.

• Technology & Security Risk Services

SGV help clients understand and manage business risks that can impact performance and financial results, including risks relating to business processes, technology, regulatory compliance, government contracting, fraud, and treasury and trading activities.

History

SyCip Gorres Velayo and Company was founded by a well-known Chinese Filipino businessman Washington SyCip. It began as a one-man operation when "Wash" opened an office in Manila to provide services to Philippine businesses rising from the ruins of World War II[3]. SyCip acted as accountant, messenger, and janitor. Alfredo M. Velayo, a boyhood friend with whom Wash shared his dreams, and Vicente O. Jose, an accountant with copious experience in tax work, were taken in as partners in 1947. The new partnership gave birth to SyCip, Velayo, Jose & Co.

In 1948, the firm embarked on its first overseas engagement, heralding its forays into several other countries. Working in foreign offices gave staff the chance to hone their skills, competence and experience in dealing with different cultures. The firm pioneered the Filipinization of the accounting profession. The first step taken to achieve this end was to work out a merger with Henry Hunter Bayne & Co. (HHB), a firm which started its practice in the country in 1906.

In 1953, Thomas Farnell, a senior partner of HHB, decided to return to his homeland and sell his practice to two Filipino accountants – Arsenio Reyes and Ramon J. Gorres. After a series of negotiations between Wash SyCip and the two distinguished gentlemen, the two firms merged to form the largest accounting firm in the Philippines. From this relationship, SyCip, Gorres, Velayo & Co., the Firm’s current name, was derived.

In 1958, SGV assumed the practice of British firm Fleming & Williamson, which was rated the second largest accounting firm in the Philippines. The firm expanded further by establishing offices in Bacolod and Davao cities. Rapid growth accompanied a series of mergers with British firms in the 1950s which resulted in the partnership now known as SGV & Co.

As SGV continued to expand its practice in the country, it kept abreast of developments in the international professional world. The Firm began correspondent relations with some of the leading firms in the West, among them Arthur Andersen & Co., Ernst & Ernst, Haskins & Sells, and Arthur Young. For over 20 years, it has provided institutional development projects in more than 30 countries with funding assistance from international institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

In 1985, SGV & Co. became a member firm of Arthur Andersen & Co., S.C., one of the largest professional service organizations in the world. The firm opened its Manila Offshore Systems Development Center, with assistance from Andersen Consulting, in 1986, and has provided computer software services to foreign clients through Andersen Consulting's global marketing network and resources.

SGV & Co. became a member practice of Ernst & Young on September 1, 2002 and the firm currently has eight branches across the Philippines, an main office in Makati. SGV’s staff consists of CPAs, lawyers, economists, HR experts, engineers, statisticians, financial analysts, and other business and technical experts.

Links

Internal Links
Washington SyCip
Ernst & Young
Big Four auditors
Arthur Andersen

External Links
SGV & Co. Website
Ernst & Young

See Also

History of SyCip Gorres Velayo and Company
Numbers Man on Asiaweek.com
SGV Foundation