Mazars UK business posts ‘record’ growth as firm pushes to tackle Big Four’s dominance
Mazars today said its UK audit business grew 37 per cent over the previous year, as the accounting firm seeks to take on the Big Four and capture a larger share of the market.
Mazars’ UK business posted “record” growth, despite rising costs, after its revenues increased by more than a fifth (23 per cent) in the year ending in August 2022.
The accounting firm’s UK segment brought in £52m extra fees, generating income of £274m, as its revenues grew in line with the rest of Mazars’ global business.
Revenues from Mazars’ audit and assurance business in the UK grew 37 per cent, as the firm pushed forwards with investment in its business.
Mazars’ UK overheads increased to £69.7m, as the firm’s British business hired more than 1,000 extra staff, including a record 450 UK trainees in the first quarter of 2022.
Soaring inflation also forced the accounting firm to lift salaries across the board, as it battled to retain staff amid an ongoing pay war in the City for talented professionals.
Mazars’ UK chief executive Phil Verity said the firm is “investing today to build a team with the skills, resources and support to succeed in the future”.
While this reined in profits, they still increased by £23m, to £122m, for the financial year ending on 31 August 2022.
The firms expansion in the UK comes as the government is seeking to push forwards with overhaul of Britain’s audit sector.
The audit sector shake-up is set to see the UK seek to tackle the dominance of the Big Four – EY, KPMG, PwC, and Deloitte – by boosting smaller auditors.
The plans could see the Big Four forced to share audits of Britain’s major companies with challenger firms, such as Mazars, BDO, and Grant Thornton.
The UK government could also impose a cap on the number of FTSE 100 audits the Big Four are allowed to carry out, in a shift that would open up space for smaller auditors.
The Big Four currently audit 99 out of the UK’s FTSE 100 and 87 per cent of Britain’s top FTSE 250 firms.
At a global level, Mazars’ fee incomes grew by 16.4 per cent, to €2.45bn (£2.18bn), as its revenues grew across all lines of its business.
The firm’s global audit and assurance business continued to generate the largest portion of Mazars’ total revenues, in contributing 42.8 per cent of the global firm’s overall income.
Mazars’ global audit business grew 15.5 per cent year on year, in generating revenues of €944m. The uptick came on the back of fast-paced growth in markets worldwide.
The accounting firm’s financial advisory business, however, posted the sharpest growth, in expanding by 29.7 per cent to €177m. Mazars’ legal business also grew 18.6 per cent, in posting revenues of €49m.
Mazars’ global chairman and CEO Hervé Hélias said “despite a complex global environment, 2022 was an excellent year for Mazars across all geographies and service lines.”