Andersen legal bid over Reckitt fee

A BITTER legal battle has broken out between accountants Andersen and household products group Reckitt Benckiser over allegations of unpaid fees of £1.3m. Andersen, which is suing chief executive Bart Becht's Reckitt in the High Court, claims that almost half the debt stems from work it did for Reckitt as part of the group's merger with Dutch counterpart Benckiser in 2000.

The merger proved highly successful, generating substantial cost savings which have helped underpin a remarkable recovery in Reckitt's share price from 875p last Christmas to around 1200p now.

Andersen said the Dettol-to-Mr Sheen group also owes it nearly £300,000 for consultancy services provided in relation to the refinancing of its Luxembourg and Irish operations. Reckitt has also allegedly run up £235,000 in unpaid tax advisory bills.

A Reckitt spokesman said it planned to fight Andersen in court, but declined to say on what grounds it was refusing to pay Andersen's bill. Andersen is not retained by Reckitt in any permanent capacity, he added.

Such sums would be received gratefully by Andersen's UK office, which is in the throes of folding its operations into fellow accounting firm Deloitte & Touche in the wake of the debacle at US energy giant Enron. However, Andersen UK's corporate recovery practice is to join forces with rival Ernst & Young.