The understated Big Four Middle East recruitment frenzy

PricewaterhouseCooper's bid to become the dominant Big Four accountancy firm in the Middle East has created something of a poaching frenzy.

It has recruited more than 20 partners from Ernst & Young in the Middle East as well as hiring 25 new partners and 400 staff in the region, according to a report by the Times. PwC has also relocated 17 partners and 250 fee earners from the UK, US and Australia.

These moves were thought to take place last summer, but were kept quiet due an agreement struck between the two firms.

Nonetheless, this clearly this is a significant recruitment drive, and is partly driven by a desire to overtake E&Y, which - with 4,200 employees - is still the largest of the Big Four firms in the region. PwC now employs around 3,000, while Deloitte and KPMG both have around 2,000 staff.

It's also signals the firm's confidence that the Middle East will produce lucrative advisory fees, which it estimates will more than double to $500m in two years. This, PwC says, will be driven by huge infrastructure projects over the next five years - particularly in Abu Dhabi and Saudi - a sector, which as we alluded to earlier, is heating up.

For its part, E&Y continues to recruit in the Middle East. Towards the end of last year, it signalled its intention to focus on advising entrepreneur-led companies, as well as build out its regional climate change and sustainability services in 2010.

It also hired Michael Green to lead its regional advisory practice and Fahad Altoaimi as managing partner for its Riyadh office. In total E&Y has 140 open positions across the Middle East.

Deloitte, meanwhile, has been building its Middle East Islamic finance group throughout this year in a bid to capitalise in what it describes as a growing desire among clients to tap sharia-compliant products. It also landed lucrative work around the restructuring of Dubai World's debt.

Last year, it also signalled its intention to grow its Middle East operations.