Asian growth boosts KPMG
BIG four accountancy firm KPMG today reports a strong rise in annual revenue on the back of increased sales in emerging markets.
The practice said revenue rose 10.1 per cent to $22.7bn (£14.5bn) for the year to 30 September. As well as financial services, the results were driven by member firms seeing work grow in healthcare, energy, infrastructure and government.
Michael J Andrew, chairman of KPMG International, which includes UK operations, said: “To achieve double-digit growth in such a tough environment shows that we have the right strategy.
“We achieved this by focusing on fundamentals and organic growth and making common investments in our strategic priorities.”
The group, which operates in 152 countries, grew revenue by 25 per cent in India and 22 per cent in Brazil in local currency terms.
KPMG also invested heavily in China, where revenue rose 12.9 per cent in local currency terms. It said it advised on three of China’s four largest outbound merger and acquisition deals.
This helped push the firm to achieve revenue growth in US dollars of 16.6 per cent in the Asia Pacific region, 10.7 per cent in the Americas and 7.7 per cent in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India combined.
KPMG operates as a global network of firms providing audit, tax and advisory services.
During the year it created a number of centres of excellence in areas such as defence, justice and security, financial services risk and regulation, cloud computing and Islamic finance.
In August the announced plans for its member firms to hire about 75,000 graduates globally over three years, an increase of 25 per cent on historical targets.
The results come as KPMG and the rest of the “big four” – Ernst & Young, Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers – continue a recovery from the global services slump of 2008-09.
In September Deloitte’s member firms worldwide reported a record $28.8bn in revenue for its 2011 fiscal year, up 8.4 per cent, driven by strong growth in the Asia-Pacific region.
KPMG’s British operation, which is working on the special administration of the UK arm of broker MF Global, is expected to publish its results and profit per partner figures in January.
$22.7bn Total revenues for year to September
145,000 workers in member firms, up five per cent