KPMG’s operations in UAE split by partner infighting and coup attempt
KPMG’s operations in the United Arab Emirates were divided by infighting and the chief executive survived an attempted coup after two senior partners raised governance issues and were subsequently fired.
The accounting group’s Lower Bay operations were thrown into disarray last week as a group of partners planned a secret ballot to determine whether Nader Hafar, KPMG’s chief executive in the region since 2018, according to current and former insiders lost their support.
Hafar faces firing if three-quarters of the firm’s 60 partners say they lose confidence in him, the people said.
However, the uprising stalled on Friday and the vote was called off, according to one of the people. “It looks like Nader is alive now,” the person said.
The two senior partners who have lost their jobs in the past month are members of KPMG’s Lower Bay Area executive committee. Insiders said they had raised governance concerns about a conflict of interest involving Haffar’s brother-in-law, Talal Cheikh Elard, who was appointed as the firm’s partner, head of clients and markets and a member of its executive committee last October. A third senior partner was also fired, causing even more shock to the company.
The three did not respond to requests for comment.
KPMG’s clients in the Lower Gulf include Dubai World, an investment firm acting in the interests of the Dubai government, and Majid Al Futtaim Group, an Emirati real estate and retail group. It also advises sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investments and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, people at the firm said.
Current and former KPMG insiders say Hafar has a “volatile” personality and clashed with colleagues in previous roles at KPMG Saudi Arabia and Deloitte.
Internal documents and emails reviewed by the Financial Times highlighted similar concerns raised by some KPMG staff about the chief executive.
“While we cannot comment further on the specific issues raised, we take any allegations of this nature very seriously,” KPMG International and KPMG Lower Bay said in the same statement. Or speak up when they hear anything they think is inappropriate and take action if necessary.”
Nader Haffar and Talal Cheikh Elard did not respond to requests for comment through KPMG.
The internal changes in the Lower Gulf region, where KPMG operates in the UAE and Oman, will further highlight the Big Four’s international division, which prides itself on promoting a shared set of values and standards across its global network of member firms, which collectively employ More than 236,000 people.
While some of the Big Four have begun to centralize control of their operations in the region, rival partners say KPMG has a more fragmented presence in the Gulf. One person said KPMG’s Middle East business was made up of “territories controlled by individual partners”. Another described it as “a disastrous collection of individual companies arguing with each other”.
The upheaval comes shortly after KPMG’s Ashish Kandelwal, one of KPMG’s highest earners in the Bay Area and head of deal advisory, was set to join rival Big Four. His departure would be a huge loss as he oversees one of KPMG’s most profitable accounts at Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ. Kandelwal did not respond to a request for comment.
