A Latin alternative

SMS Latinoamérica provides a full
range of professional services to clients in Latin America and the
Caribbean. It is the largest network solely focused on
Spanish-speaking clients.

In last year’s International Accounting
Bulletin world survey, SMS Latinoamérica grew combined revenue by
36 percent to $52.3 million in the year to May 2008. This made it
the fastest-growing network in terms of fee income and the third
fastest-growing accounting group overall.

This financial year’s fee income forecast has
already grown to $61 million. The network has 1,660 staff in 26
countries, which includes a blanket coverage of Latin America and
the Caribbean.

SMS Latinoamérica was established in 2002 by
the network’s founder firm San Martin, Suarez y Asociados in Buenos
Aires, Argentina.

“We understood if we could serve the almost
600 million people speaking the same language, having the same
problems and requiring the same necessities, we would be a
successful network,” SMS Latinoamérica executive director Alfredo
Spilzinger says.

“We started preparing for SMS Latinoamérica in
2001 with the knowledge that the future of our profession would be
a network of regional networks. First we spent one-and-a-half years
creating the methodology for our organisation and working out what
it was we were going to launch.”

The early days

The first member to join the network
was Uruguayan firm Kugelmass Kovner in 2002.

“We started working with them back in 1992-93
but it was not under a contract. We shared practices, giving them
some instructions for certain clients,” SMS Latinoamérica president
and founder Pablo San Martin recalls. “Close to 2000, after a
decade of sharing clients in a non-regulated way, we decided to
become a global organisation, so we put in place all the
contractual relationship.”

Firms in Chile, Bolivia and Peru soon
followed. Today, as the whole region is covered, expansion occurs
within countries.

Spilzinger, formerly a Latin America regional
director of Grant Thornton, has been instrumental in finding
suitable firms. He says member firms must meet high quality
standards and when they join they become the exclusive firm in that
region.

San Martin, Suarez y Asociados is the
network’s biggest firm and also houses the international
secretariat. The firm is the sixth largest in Argentina in terms of
annual revenue, with fee income of ARS33 million ($9 million) in
its most recent financial year. It has nearly 400
professionals.

Another strong SMS firm is Marambio, Gonzalez
y Asociados in Venezuela, the fifth largest in its market.

In Brazil, SMS Latinoamérica is planning to
open new offices in Belo Horizonte, Manaus and Brasilia. Similar
expansion plans are being implemented in Mexico and Columbia.

Quality first

Although expansion has been rapid,
the network insists this has not come at the cost of quality. Last
year, SMS Latinoamérica was granted full member status of the Forum
of Firms. To maintain high standards, SMS Latinoamérica has its own
training centre in Buenos Aires, a department of internal quality
control and even a software development centre – all based in
Spanish

“The aim is to integrate with just one
methodology to all the member firms,” San Martin explains. “We are
also planning to teach this international programme in Panama,
together with the University of Bologna, for our members in Central
America and the Caribbean.”

The network has budgeted $500,000 towards
training and software development.Training covers core topics such
as Sarbanes-Oxley, forensic audit, corporate governance and money
laundering prevention.

SMS Latinoamérica has no plans to expand its
operations outside Latin America but can serve multi-national
clients through alliances with other regional networks. These are
Fidunion in Europe, the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organisation in Middle
East and the ASNAF group in South East Asia.

“Our long-term strategy is that this alliance
will become a giant network of networks,” Spilzinger says. “We were
talking about this during our [April] meeting in London.”