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Andersen Worldwide picks Cardoso as CEO

The board of Andersen Worldwide has elected Aldo Cardoso, head of the accounting firm's French operations, as interim chief executive, according to sources close to Andersen on Thursday.

Cardoso, who is also chairman of the Andersen Worldwide board, will take over as chief executive on an interim basis from Joseph Berardino, who resigned last week, they said.

An Andersen spokesman denied that Cardoso had been appointed, but declined to comment on who had been chosen.

However, one source reiterated that Cardoso was the new CEO and had already addressed country managers and other executives.

Andersen is facing criminal charges for its role as auditor of energy trader Enron, which filed for the largest-ever US bankruptcy in December.

The accounting firm faces an obstruction of justice indictment by the US Department of Justice, billion-dollar lawsuits from Enron investors and an exodus of major clients.

The board of Andersen Worldwide, the umbrella body for the firm's network of partnerships around the world, has been meeting in London since Tuesday.

It had been expected to pick an interim replacement for Berardino as well as look at merger options for the group's partnerships around the world.

In the United States Andersen is looking at a restructuring recommended by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, which could include selling off parts of its US business.

Andersen outside the United States tried to merge with rival global accounting group KPMG, but talks fell apart on Tuesday as Andersen operations in Spain and Asia broke away and made deals with rivals.

Andersen's non-US operations now look set to be cherry-picked by the remaining "big four" global accounting firms -- Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Talks have been going on this week between Andersen and KPMG in Sweden, the UK and Germany.

Andersen's Malaysian operation is considering mergers with rivals, but sources said on Thursday its local owners might just decide to abandon the franchise and go it alone.

Andersen partnerships around the world are separate legal entities and as such have been able to conclude their own deals with the other big four firms.

The latest was Singapore on Wednesday, which announced an agreement to merge with Ernst & Young.

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