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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Spurned by job seekers, the accountancy profession has an image problem. But it has never been so fashionable with investors. Private equity is tipped to own as many as 10 of the 30 largest US accounting firms and might soon be funding their international expansion. Grant Thornton’s private equity-backed US business is one of the potential bidders for its UK and Irish affiliates.

It is not hard to see the logic. Accounting firms provide a flow of resilient, stable audit revenues, along with scope to consolidate a fragmented market. If private equity can find cross-border deals, it could accelerate growth by making it easier to serve high-paying international clients.

Firms have traditionally relied on a club of international networks for global reach, a structure that makes it easier to distance themselves from any member firm that runs into trouble.

But advocates of cross-border mergers emphasise the advantages of simplified decision-making, less bureaucracy and fewer arguments over how to allocate profits on international projects. Deloitte began merging its European businesses in 2016.

Reaching agreement can be tricky. A 2006 push by KPMG to merge its national partnerships in Europe failed, though its UK and Swiss firms recently agreed to merge again. Internal disagreements forced EY to abandon its ambitious attempt to break up its auditing and consulting businesses in 2023.

Another worry, noted by regulators, is that private equity ownership could damage audit quality. Maria Nykyforovych, an assistant professor at George Mason University, says the short-term investment objectives of private equity investors could create damaging incentives. Even though regulators require audit businesses to be controlled by auditors, there might be scope for private equity investors to influence the audit practice through interlocked boards or management service fees.

There is also uncertainty over investors’ end game given the difficulties of initial public offerings and trade sales. Private equity, which mostly began investing in 2021, has barely tested the exit routes. Ownership could end up with pension funds, family offices or even return to the partners.

For now, the most likely outcome seems to be a sale to other private equity firms. London-based Hg passed on half its stake in Azets to PAI Partners in June 2023. But the scale and complexity of international roll-ups could ultimately limit the pool of potential buyers.

There is potential for private equity to be a force for good in the accountancy profession. It can fund investment in artificial intelligence and other technologies or help revamp incentive structures to enhance the appeal of an accountancy career.

But there will also be unintended consequences. The speed and scale of investment in the sector risks amplifying the impact of any mis-steps.

vanessa.houlder@ft.com

The life of Oskar Picht, a German teacher and inventor, is being celebrated with a Google Doodle today, Monday 23 September 2024.

For more than a quarter century, the internet search engine has periodically transformed its logo into fun designs marking everything from the birthdays of famous scientists and musicians to interactive games and international events.

Since the first Google Doodle – which saw Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin tweak the logo to add a man behind the second “O” to let people know they would be out of office for the Burning Man festival, in 1998 – the company’s team of in-house “Doodlers” have partnered with local guest artists and creators from across the world to generate more than 5,000 designs.

i explores the life of the man behind today’s Doodle and explains why he is being celebrated.

Who was Oskar Picht?

Oskar Picht was a German teacher and inventor best known for creating the first Braille typewriter.

He was born in Hamburg in 1871. As a teacher Picht soon became interest in educating the blind, attending the State Institute for the Blind in Berlin-Steglitz for two years.

He developed his first Braille typewriter in 1899 and received the patent for it in 1901, before being granted another patent in 1932 after decades of improvements and modifications. The upgraded machine had six keys with different combinations of depressed dots used to make indents in a sheet of paper.

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In 1910, Picht developed the first German Braille strip pen, or shorthand stenomachine, and continued to advocate for the societal inclusion of people with vision disabilities.

He went on to become the director of the Provincial Institute for the Blind in Bromberg and the director of the State Institute for the Blind in Berlin-Steglitz. He was the first German to give a radio lecture on blindness and also reportedly had the first film for the blind made, Unsere Blinden und ihre Welt (Our Blind and Their World).

Picht married Margarete Charlotte Conrad on 24 April 1902. The couple had three children.

He died aged 74 on 15 August 1945, with his final resting place in the cemetery of the Brandenburg municipality of Nuthetal in the Bergholz-Rehbrücke district.

Why is a Google Doodle celebrating Oskar Picht today?

A Google Doodle celebrating Picht and his work has been released because on this date in 1907 he received a gold medal at the International Typewriter Exhibition in Venice for his achievements.

Created by Kiel-based artist Ute Dietz, the Doodle celebrates Picht’s remarkable invention, which has enabled blind people to write Braille more quickly and efficiently.

It features a bronze typewriter engraved in Braille on a bronze slab, surrounded by various icons of stationary items and tools including reading glasses, a wrench and a screwdriver.

Google’s story about the design said: “The Doodle artwork is a bronze relief sculpture and imagery is designed to create an equitable, legible and interesting tactile Google Doodle experience for blind people – the first of its kind in Doodle history!

“The artwork also features Braille text, explaining Oskar Picht’s accomplishments.

“The relief is permanently installed at the first Accessibility Discover Centre in the Google Munich offices.”

Explaining her design, Ms Dietz – whose artwork focuses on ways to enable blind people to participate in visual art, including through tactile or auditory means – added: “I wanted the focus to be on the typewriter for the blind and highlight some attributes of Oskar Picht as a teacher and inventor.

“When selecting the tactile elements in the Doodle, I considered balancing visual information that could be translated into the tactile. Gradually, however, the desire emerged to also convey the essence of the Doodle itself.

For instance, the screen reader text is preserved in tactile Braille. Additionally, we decided to make the classic Google logo, which is part of the collective visual memory of sighted people, accessible to the blind for the first time.”

The collapse of construction giant ISG is “devastating” for the sector and could lead to other firms going under, the boss of the industry trade body has said.

The chief executive of Build UK, Suzannah Nichol, told the BBC’s Today programme that many smaller firms in the supply chain would not now receive money, putting their future at risk.

ISG, which holds more than £1bn worth of government contracts, fell into administration last week and 2,200 workers were made redundant with immediate effect.

Liam Byrne, chair of the Business Committee, said he was “deeply concerned” at what had happened.

ISG, owned by the US firm Cathexis, had been struggling financially for some time but attempts to secure a rescue deal failed.

In an email to staff last week, ISG chief executive Zoe Price said the current situation had arisen due to “legacy issues” relating to “large loss-making contracts” secured between 2018 and 2020.

The company is involved in 69 government projects including work on prison refurbishment for the Ministry of Justice, according to data analysts Barbour ABI.

Last week, a government spokesperson said it had already implemented detailed contingency plans, and affected departments were working to ensure sites were safe and secure.

ISG’s collapse is the most high-profile in the UK’s construction sector since Carillion fell into adminstration in 2018.

Speaking to the Today programme, Ms Nichol said: “Construction remains undervalued, and people underestimate the cost of construction.

“Whilst there have been changes since Carillion six years ago, there clearly has not been enough change.

“We know construction runs on very thin margins. You only need one project to go wrong and get delayed and you start to have cashflow issues,” she added.

“ISG had two major contracts which they started, mobilised and then were stopped by the client and that happens time and time again in construction.”

Liam Byrne voiced his concern at the news, which he said could now “imperil thousands of jobs”.

“It’s why we’ve got to transform the quality of UK accounting so it once again provides the early warning system that investors, workers and suppliers deserve.”

Columbia Hillen

About to leave for our scheduled tour of Hobbiton, the charming film location of the Shire, home to Frodo and company, disaster struck.

Approaching our car, I noticed the rear tire was completely flat, the result of a nail puncture. And the spare was too thin to get us there.

Columbia Hillen

To make matters worse, it was our last day in New Zealand’s Waikato region so we couldn’t re-schedule. Seeing my wife’s downcast face, Hobbiton being the holiday highlight she’d been most looking forward to, I felt helpless.

That’s when staff at our hotel, Hidden Lake in Cambridge on the North Island, went into action. 

Rajwinder Kaur, hotel manager. Photo by Columbia Hillen

Within minutes, not one but four members of staff were hard at work to save the day, two working the phones, one to find a garage, the other to see what time Hobbiton closed and if we could change our scheduled tour time, while two others rushed to the car to replace the flat tire with the reserve to get us to whatever nearby garage might be open.  

Unfortunately, the first two garages contacted were too busy to help and as the minutes ticked by, all seemed lost. But aside from being a patient and kind host, hotel manager, Rajwinder Kaur, a native of Uttar Pradesh in northern India, is also a very persistent woman. Finally, looking up at our forlorn faces, she smiled. “I found one.”

Glenda Turner, hotel owner. Photo by Columbia Hillen

This incident encapsulates the pedigree of people my wife and I were fortunate to meet on a two-night stay at this attractive family-run hotel. 

Owned and operated by Chris Turner, an agricultural machine specialist, and his wife, Glenda, a former teacher, the 37-room hotel sits beside a lake partially hidden by a forest of maple, oak and Japanese cherry, a relaxing place where Glenda and her family would enjoy weekend getaways, thus the inspiration for the hotel’s name.

Columbia Hillen

After leasing the building, the couple opened the hotel three years ago offering their services to both tourists and corporate clients from the nearby horse stud farms, glass manufacturing and agricultural sectors.

Columbia Hillen

Our room was a comfortable one featuring a small balcony overlooking the forest with furnishings that included a large wall TV, an armchair, tea and coffee-making facilities, a mini-bar and a glass-enclosed shower. 

Being environmentally conscious, pillows and duvets were made from recycled plastic, any solar energy the hotel doesn’t use is donated to the township of Cambridge, dispensers are used instead of single soaps and guests have options in their rooms to separate recyclable material from waste.

Columbia Hillen

Food at the Hidden Lake Hotel is of the highest quality, with much of the produce used either coming from her uncle’s farm or the local farmer’s market. 

Columbia Hillen

Both dinner and breakfast are served in D’Arcy’s restaurant with views over the forest from the second floor. The latter featured a tasty whipped avocado dish comprising local goat cheese, poached eggs with focaccia and za’atar, a mix of Levantine herbs such as sesame, sumac and other spices. 

Columbia Hillen

The menu also featured classic eggs Benedict, Chinese bolognese, brioche French toast with mascarpone, poached pear, bacon and honey, as well as the full breakfast of bacon, chipolata, hash browns, toast and cherry tomato or Poppa’s porridge with caramelized banana, brown sugar and cream and Bircher muesli with coconut and plum. The hot chocolate I tasted, offered with or without marshmallows, was deliciously smooth and creamy. 

Columbia Hillen

Dinner was similarly diverse with my wife choosing starters of seared scallops and I green lipped mussels in a creamy turmeric sauce followed by mains of tagliatelle and salmon.

Columbia Hillen

Kudos also go to Chris and Glenda for their innovative cocktail menu, many created by them, often reflecting real-life situations. The Lockdown Delta Variant, for example, emerged out of Covid, and comprises gin, blood orange, Bergamot, lemon juice, Aquafaba and orange bitters, all topped with tonic water. Another cocktail, Smoky Linen, emerged from an incident when a tea towel caught fire. It consists of Bailey’s, Kahlua, white and dark chocolate and creme de cacao and milk, topped, of course, with a smoky charred marshmallow. 

Columbia Hillen

Within easy walking distance of charming downtown Cambridge, the Hidden Lake Hotel is also a convenient stopover for tourists visiting Hobbiton, a 30-minute drive away through rolling countryside, as well as to Hamilton with its stunning, 54-hectare public garden and the geothermal park with its dramatic geysers, bubbling mud and Maori cultural experiences at Te Puia Rotorua.