KPMG announces strong FY19 global revenue growth

KPMG today announced record revenues of $29.75 billion for the fiscal year ending 30 September 2019 (FY19), representing a 6.2% increase in local currency terms on FY18.

• Revenue growth driven by solid FY19 performance across all KPMG regions, with Asia Pacific delivering the fastest growth of 9.3% driven by 14.1% growth in Advisory. Americas region growing at 6.6% and in Europe, Middle East and Africa, including India (EMA) by 4.7%.
• Advisory growing at 7.9% contributed the largest proportion of the increase in total revenues, supported by double-digit growth in deal related services and digital transformation solutions.
• Audit grew by 3.7% while Tax & Legal Services grew by 7.8%.
• Consistently positive growth across each of KPMG’s five industry sectors, Financial Services 3.9%, Industrial Markets 4.5%, Consumer Markets 4.5%, with Technology Media & Telecoms 8.1% and Infrastructure Government & Healthcare 10.8% being particular highlights.
• Our position as a leading employer of choice reinforced with total headcount increasing to more than 219,000 people across 147 countries and territories.
• KPMG is focused on building an inclusive and diverse culture, and has increased female diversity among our leadership ranks to 25% of Partners and Directors, while over 30% of new partners promoted and recruited in our largest practices were female.
• KPMG people volunteered approximately 550,000 hours of time in the past twelve months, including 100,000 hours of pro-bono professional services.

“We are pleased to have achieved strong growth during an important transitional year for KPMG as we focus on making significant investments as part of our multi-year collective strategy implementation,” said Bill Thomas, Global Chairman and CEO, KPMG International.

“In addition to our enduring focus on quality and trust we’re also enhancing our leadership position in the digital transformation of professional services through an expected investment of $5 billion in innovation, people and technology over the coming five years. This will accelerate the digital transformation of KPMG and enable us to better serve clients as they continue to address their own transformations.”

Audit, Tax and Advisory

Audit

Audit revenues for the year grew globally by 3.7% to $11.18 billion.

KPMG is committed to improving quality and consistency by investing in game-changing methodologies and technology innovations. During 2019 KPMG continued the roll out of Clara, KPMG’s smart audit platform which brings KPMG’s powerful data and analytics capabilities into one interface, allowing our professionals to work smarter while interacting with clients online in real time as they conduct the audit. KPMG Clara has been deployed in more than 100 countries and territories to date.

As part of the network’s collective strategy all KPMG firms are committed to driving tangible and sustainable advances in quality and consistency. As a global organization, KPMG is driving the use of centralization to achieve the consistency regulators and stakeholders expect and deserve.

“As an organization we are making unprecedented investments to advance audit quality in a hyper-competitive global audit marketplace our priority continues to be on aligning top talent with next generation technology to deliver stakeholder value and build trust,” said Bill O’Mara, Global Head of Audit, KPMG International.

Tax & Legal Services

Tax & Legal Services revenues grew 7.8% in FY19 to $6.62 billion up from 6.3% growth in FY18, driven by strong demand for KPMG’s multi-disciplinary tax services, including Corporate and Business Tax compliance which continued to be enhanced by ongoing collective investments. Strong growth in Legal Services has been supported by the continuing expansion of coverage of the offering across KPMG.

With the introduction of new technologies and enhanced service offerings, KPMG has been able to help tax and legal leaders not only meet compliance obligations but also transform their departments and establish new ways of working through such initiatives as Tax Reimagined, KPMG’s unique framework that combines the strengths of our technology, transformation and compliance capabilities.

“As organizations face unprecedented regulatory change and challenging geopolitical shifts, as well as the impacts of digitalization and heightened public attention on tax and legal activities, our collective investments in the depth, breadth and connectivity of our multidisciplinary tax and legal services paved the way for growth in these areas through FY19,” said Jane McCormick, Global Head of Tax & Legal Services, KPMG International.

Advisory

Advisory grew by 7.9% in FY19 to $11.95 billion, driven in part by high client demand for strategy, deal related services and digital transformation solutions.

“As our clients shape, transform and protect their businesses to maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly digital world, they are looking to KPMG’s capabilities and globally minded practitioners to help them address these critical challenges and opportunities. KPMG’s deep industry expertise, a future focused view of sectors and business models and our strong tools, methods and technologies help clients hone their strategies, align their operations across the enterprise, and become more customer centric. These demands have set the stage for our strong overall growth,” said Mark A. Goodburn, Global Head of Advisory, KPMG International.

KPMG’s Advisory capabilities continue to be recognized by the analyst community.  In 2019, KPMG was ranked as a Leader in 25 major evaluations in areas central to our client’s transformation agendas including cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, digital change management, and corporate services as well as our Powered Enterprise and Connected Enterprise solutions.

Notes to editors:

KPMG FY19 member firm revenues (US$ billions)

All figures throughout this press release are in US dollars. All growth figures are in local currency except where noted.

FY19 and FY18 revenues, reported in USD billions, are translated at the average exchange rates prevailing in each respective financial year.

The industry analysis excludes revenues reported outside of KPMG’s standard sector taxonomy. Prior year figures have been restated to reflect FY18 sector reclassifications.

Local growth percentages are based on maintaining consistent FY19 exchange rates across both FY19 and FY18.

Legal services may not be offered to SEC registrant audit clients or where otherwise prohibited by law.

The following global reports have also been issued by KPMG International today:

KPMG’s 2019 Global Review reflects on our record of achievement over the past year, demonstrating the insights and expertise of KPMG professionals and the unrelenting focus on acting with integrity and quality in everything we do.

KPMG’s 2019 International Transparency Report provides insights and details on how we continually strive to enhance audit quality, which is a direct reflection of the KPMG network’s unwavering commitment to audit quality, an integral element of our business and culture.