EY brushes off Brexit gloom with revenue increase

PROFESSIONAL services firm EY has defied economic and political headwinds to report UK fee income growth of 7% to £2.150bn for the year to July, up from £2.010bn.

This takes EY’s Compound Annual Growth Rate over the last five years to 8%, adding almost £700m to its revenue.

The performance of EY’s 500-strong Yorkshire practice, comprising offices in Leeds and Hull, was in line with the UK firm’s expansion during the period.

EY said it continued investment in the region with the appointment of a new partner to strengthen the indirect tax team on the back of significant investment in tax, financial services and audit partners over the past couple of years.  

There were also a number of internal senior promotions in Yorkshire, and investment in the next generation of recruits, from its school leaver and graduate programmes.

The Yorkshire Transaction Services team hailed another successful year, working on a multiple deals across all service lines, including the £1.4bn acquisition of Pace by Arris Group in January.

Stuart Watson, Yorkshire senior partner at EY, said: “Over recent years we’ve been firmly focused on investing in our Yorkshire practice, together with our people and our brand in the region. These investments reflect the strong demand from clients and the strength and quality of the region’s businesses.

“Yorkshire and the North East is an important market for EY. Despite some uncertainty around the upcoming negotiations of new trading arrangements with the EU we are seeing continued confidence in the region as a place in which to do business. Clients are pushing ahead with investments and acquisitions and are determined to shape their own growth plans.  Public interest entities are also increasingly interested in engaging with advisers as they tackle an increasing complex world.”

The slow-down in the run up to the EU Referendum reduced the momentum of EY’s overall performance, however all service lines and regions still reported strong growth over the year. Distributable profits before tax increased by 3% from £437m to £452m.

Steve Varley, EY’s UK chairman, said: “There have been a variety of economic and political headwinds affecting global growth with the uncertainty around the impact of Brexit being one of a number of challenges that companies are having to consider.

“However, I am confident that our global structure and deep sector experience will continue to be a differentiator. We are already seeing signs of an improving market with activity levels picking up in our first quarter of the new financial year.”