PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is planning to spin off its consulting business in a multi-billion dollar initial public offering this year, in a move designed to cement confidence in its core accounting and audit business in the wake of the collapse of Enron.

PwC is the latest of the big accountancy firms to separate its consulting business. Last year KPMG Consulting was spun off from its parent KPMG in a $2bn (€2.3bn) IPO in the US, and Accenture, the former Andersen Consulting, also went public in a $1.7bn IPO. Morgan Stanley was lead manager on both deals, while Goldman Sachs acted as lead on the Accenture deal.