Senior Irish partners at accountants KPMG could be paper millionaires today if the flotation of the consultancy arm of the global partnership on the US market goes ahead successfully.

KMPG Consulting Inc (KCI) is expected to come to the market today with shares offered at between $15 and $18. Though the 45 partners at the Irish practice sold their consulting business to the US consultancy arm of KPMG last September, payment for their shares was deferred until the flotation.

But the partners will have to wait at least six months to realise their paper profits because of a share lock-in clause in the flotation.

Documents lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in the US put a value of £40 million (€50.6 million) on the Irish business.

Among the Irish partners who would benefit are managing partner Mr Jerome Kennedy, the head of the Irish management consulting operation Mr John Condon, Mr Alex Burns who supervises the National Lottery, and Mr Pat O'Brien and Mr Donall Gannon of the KPMG tax section. The KPMG Consulting float was originally planned for last November but was deferred against a background of weak stock markets and falling technology shares. The move by the global KPMG partnership follows moves by other Big Five accounting firms to split off their consulting operations from their audit/accounting operations are being retained under the partnership umbrella, consulting operations are being sold off or set up as separate limited companies.

The moves are a response to strict regulation by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US aimed at ensuring that auditors are not influenced in their opinions by consultancy fees from audit clients and because consulting operations need capital for development and expansion.

The IPO prospectus shows that KPMG adviser Morgan Stanley is purchasing a portion of the shares on offer for sale to directors, officers and employees of KCI and certain employees and retired partners of the KPMG partnership worldwide.