Pricewaterhouse-Coopers (PwC), which has begun trading following the merger of chartered accountants, Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand, has said it is to "significantly" increase employment levels. It is seeking an immediate 100 professionals, Mr Donal O'Connor, senior partner, and Mr Bill Cunningham, deputy senior partner, said at the signing of the merger agreement in Dublin. PwC which employs 1,133 claims to be the largest "professional services firm" in Ireland. The merger, they said "will transform the professional services market. Clients and employees will benefit from the increased scale of the new firm", they said.

The merger will not lead to any redundancies. "We are very lucky at the timing...with the economy buoyant...we need more people," said Mr O'Connor. Asked why the enlarged firm did not merge with the PwC operation in Northern Ireland and form an all-Ireland grouping, Mr O'Connor said the firms in the Republic will have to be "bedded down" first. "That will be on the table" in time, but in the meantime he would be forging closer links with the Northern Ireland firm.

Although Price Waterhouse (PW) with 632 employees is larger than Coopers & Lybrand (C&L) with 501, Mr O'Connor stressed it was a "merger of equals". The senior management team, called the leadership team, is equally divided between the two firms. Apart from Mr O'Connor (former senior partner PW), and Mr Cunningham (former managing partner C&L) who will be the audit and business advisory services leader, PwC has announced other senior appointments. They are: Mr Enda Faughnan (PW), tax and legal services leader, Mr Pat Wall (C&L) industries leader, Mr Michael McGrail (C&L) corporate finance leader, Mr Tom Grace (PW) corporate recovery and insolvency leader, Mr Paul Hennessy (C&L) enterprise development services leader, and Mr Ronan Murphy (PW) finance, planning and infrastructure leader.

However out of the 80 partners in PwC, PW has 45 and C&L has 35, which, in effect, gives the PW partners control. But each firm will retain its own supervisory board for the moment. Since the global merger was announced on September 17th 1997, the firms have been seeking regulatory approval from numerous countries.

PwC internationally employs 135,000 people in 150 countries.