Yorkshire operation holds firm for PwC
THE northern operation of global accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers has seen turnover dip in a year where the firm “held its nerve”.
In the year to June 30, turnover for the firm nudged up from £2.24bn to £2.25bn, however, in the North the figure slipped from £176m to £168m.
The group said in the current challenging environment PwC grew its corporate restructuring work in Yorkshire.
Steve Denison, northern chairman of PwC, based in Leeds, said: “Against this backdrop of general economic turmoil our results represent a solid financial performance as we held our nerve and stayed close to the market and our clients. Despite the challenging environment we grew our advisory and assurance businesses whilst our tax business showed a small decline.
“Our strategy is to bring the scale and reach of our firm to the benefit of our Yorkshire and Humberside clients by delivering excellent service. This combined with tight management of our cost base has allowed us to continue to invest for the upturn.”
PwC has the largest number of listed company audit clients in the North, having 30% of the market, and has retained its 50% market share of the published audit and non-audit fees of the region’s listed companies.
The firm’s Yorkshire and Humber practice has 73 partners and directors and 619 staff, based across its offices in Leeds, Sheffield and Hull.
The firm added five new partners and 16 new directors to the region.
Mr Denison said: “It is clear from our results that we have remained strong in the North and held our nerve, despite the difficult economic trading conditions.
“We have achieved growth in our advisory and public sector businesses. Local revenues for our Yorkshire and Humberside assurance practice grew by 8%, reflecting a number of successful wins.
“Our business recovery practice helped secure many local jobs through their work on a number of restructurings and administrations such as Vasanta where PwC was the lead adviser on the restructuring and subsequent sale.
“Despite the challenging mergers and acquisitions market, we have held our nerve and redeployed our corporate finance team into corporate restructuring.”
Mr Denison added: “The outlook in the region remains uncertain in an environment where consumer confidence remains fragile and business investment slow.
“Business and government need to work hard to ensure that the attractiveness of the UK is maintained and this will be a critical success factor for our region.
“As a firm we will continue to make long-term investments and do the right thing for our people, our business and the wider community to ensure that we have the balance of skills and resources to support our clients as we move out of the downturn.”
