Fee income breaks £2bn at EY
EY the Big Four business advisory and audit firm, has announced 8% fee income growth to £2.01bn as it saw solid growth in all regions and service lines.
The firm which has 550 staff across its offices in Liverpool and Manchester said profits rose 6% to £437m in the year to July 3.
EY said it had made sizeable investments in the year, including recruiting 4,500 people in this country alone and appointing 95 new equity partners. This reduced average distributable profit per partner by 3.7% from £727,000 to £700,000.
Simon Allport, North West Senior Partner at EY, said: “Over recent years we’ve been firmly focused on investing in all of our main businesses, together with new growth initiatives and infrastructure, our people and our brand in the region. These results reflect the success of our approach, along with our people’s commitment to giving our clients outstanding service.
“The North West is an important market for EY; as confidence returns we’re seeing increased demand from our clients to help them drive growth in the UK and internationally.
“We’re also aligning our business with the vision for a Northern Powerhouse, supporting initiatives to boost regional economic development and making our own investments in the North, like our national Forensic Technology lab, which opened in October 2014.
“As a firm we’ve got real momentum, fuelled by our continued expansion and our new home for 2017 at 2 St Peter’s Square in Manchester, which signals our ambition in the region. Over the coming years we’ll continue investing to help our clients, communities and people thrive.
He added: “All of our core service lines have grown, and our Forensic Technology lab and Financial Services practice are going from strength to strength, developing new opportunities and services. Our Government & Public Sector (GPS) and Infrastructure teams are also supporting important initiatives that are helping to drive economic and public sector development in the North.”
Globally, the organisation reported annual revenues of US$28.7b for FY15 — an 11.6% increase over the previous financial year in local currency. This was the firm’s fastest growth globally since 2008.
Steve Varley, EY’s Bury-born UK chairman, said: “I am very proud of the jobs that we have created this year, especially as we continue to provide more opportunities for school leavers as well as experienced hires and new graduates.”
In the UK, where the firm now has nearly 13,500 staff, EY grew all of its four service lines. Assurance grew by 6.4% to £585m, driven by continued success in being appointed to serve as auditors to clients including The Co-op Bank, BBC, London Stock Exchange, Sainsbury’s and Sage.
The Advisory business grew by 4.5% to £584m with good growth from infrastructure, local public services, telecommunications, media, technology and life sciences.
Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) grew by 12.1% to £324m with strong performances throughout the year for all parts of its business, driven by the improving market conditions and deep industry expertise.
EY said Tax revenues grew by 10% to £517m with all areas of the business growing strongly in a year that saw good progress across all of the UK and a strong market for tax work on private equity and corporate transactions.
