THE euro has landed.

International accountancy firm KPMG, which bases its South East England operation in Crawley, has become the first major UK financial organisation to report its results in the new currency.

It reported fees up 19 per cent to 1,228 million euros.

For the conversion KPMG used the exchange rate quoted on January 4 when trading in the euro first started in Britain, £0.705 to one euro.

The rate meant that, in sterling, the firm's fee income for the 12 months came to £866.7 million.

Gross profit was up 23 per cent at 253.5 million euros which brought the overall share per partner up 19 per cent to 432,000 euros each.

UK senior partner Mike Rake said: "We decided to produce our accounts in both sterling and euros as we believe the euro will become the prime European currency in the near future.

"Whether Britain is within or without the eurozone, it will not affect the position of the euro as a major world currency."

He said that the firm was already assisting many of its clients prepare for incorporating the currency into their accounting and business systems.

Mr Rake said: "Now the economy appears to be more likely to experience a soft rather than a hard landing, I am confident that we should be able to maintain a satisfactory growth rate in 1999."

According to a poll by Reed Accountancy Personnel the majority of the UK's finance directors say their businesses are yet to be affected by the euro.

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