Business services group sees profit per partner figure rise to £749k
Big Four accountancy firm EY saw revenues and profits rise for the year ended July 2, it revealed today.
Turnover grew by 7.3%, while UK fee income grew to £2.75bn from £2.57bn the previous year. Distributable profits before tax increased to £533m, up from £479m in 2020, while the average distributable profit per partner increased to £749,000 from £667,000 in 2020.
EY said it paid around £83m in bonuses to its people, excluding partners.
Announcing its results, EY said as companies adjusted to the COVID-19 pandemic, strong levels of client demand and continued investments in EY’s people and technology capabilities supported the firm’s UK growth over the past financial year.
In the North West, sustained regional growth has seen EY continue to invest in its people, with a number of strategic hires and promotions across its Manchester and Liverpool offices. Across the North West, EY has appointed one equity partner and promoted eight individuals to associate partner.
EY has also appointed two new senior hires in its North corporate finance team: Richard Pulford and Rebecca Rennison. Richard joined EY from DC Advisory, where he spent 13 years growing and leading the firm’s North West team and Rebecca Rennison joined from PwC, where she led the Yorkshire Corporate Finance team. The pair will work together with Mark Clephan to lead the team as it continues its ambition to become the leading corporate finance practice in the region.
EY’s North West strategy and transactions team had another strong year advising on several high profile deals across a broad range of sectors.
Notable deals that the team worked on during the year include the two Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), of Victorian Plumbing and MADE.com, CMS Payments Intelligence investment in Inflexion, NorthEdge’s investment in Distology and Radius’s acquisition of CanTrack and Modus Group.
EY Manchester will be the next UK location, following London and Edinburgh, for a Wavespace centre, demonstrating regional commitment to client technology and innovation investment. EY Wavespace Manchester will be part of the firm’s global network of growth and innovation centres.
The Wavespace team helps organisations undergoing significant change to address key business challenges – from making complex global supply chains more sustainable to using AI to help manage tax compliance.
Stephen Church, managing partner for EY in the North West, said: “EY has seen strong balanced growth both nationally and regionally and we’ve continued to make significant investments in our North West business, including launching EY Wavespace Manchester.
“We employ over 800 people across the North West and we’ve continued to invest in local talent with a number of significant appointments in key areas such as corporate finance. This will help us to meet growing client demand, with people who have a good understanding of the North West market.”
EY also welcomed a total of 70 graduates and apprentices to its Manchester and Liverpool offices this September – more than nine per cent more than the previous year.
The new cohort, comprised of 41% women and 23% from an ethnic minority heritage, will be working towards professional qualifications equivalent to either a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree upon completion.
In addition, the EY Foundation – EY’s independent charity – provided short term placements to 118 people from across the North West on its Smart Futures, Tech Futures and Beyond Your Limits programmes in 2021.
Through these programmes, the EY Foundation helps support young people from low income backgrounds to receive paid work experience, mentoring, employability skills training and career advice.
Stephen Church added: “We were delighted to welcome so many students to EY this year, as they begin their career with the firm.
“It’s brilliant to see that we have increased our intake from last year, demonstrating our commitment to student recruitment and the growth of the firm. Young talent is essential to our future business success and to shaping the skills we will need to remain competitive.”
Looking ahead, he said: “The decisions we took during the pandemic to continue investing in our people, business, and the range of services we provide to clients means that we are in a great position to build our UK growth. We have ambitious growth plans and will be further strengthening our capabilities in areas such as ESG reporting, strategy and technology consulting.
“These plans will be supported by our transition to a hybrid working model over the next 12 months, where we expect that most of our people will split their time between the office, client site and their homes.
“We have long been advocates of flexible working and believe a hybrid model will enable us to maximise the collaborative benefits of in-person meetings with the flexibility of remote working, for both our clients and people.”
