Top 50: UK firms push £7bn mark

With growth of 28%, corporate finance is the fastest growing service and is helping propel the UK's Top 50 firms towards the Pounds 7bn barrier.

SEC strictures and market conditions have taken their toll: the average growth rate for the bigger practices slipped from 18.3% last year to 15% this year.

But in spite of this, combined income for the Big Five climbed to Pounds 5.32bn.

The world?s largest professional services firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, still refuses to release fee income figures for the UK, but our analysis shows its fees top Pounds 2bn - assuming the firm's 15% global growth rate applies to the UK.

Deloitte & Touche is the fastest growing Big Five firm at 21% and has leapt Ernst & Young to take third place. E&Y sold its consultancy arm to Cap Gemini for Pounds 369m, but records like-for-like growth of 16%.

Average growth in the mid-tier has nearly halved, falling from 21.4% to 11.2%.

This is largely due to the entrance at number 15 of consolidator Tenon into the market. Tenon Group, the first plc in the Top 50, has an income of Pounds 58.5m following acquisition of the non-audit arm of five UK practices. The audit business of these firms accounts for a second new entrant, Blueprint Audit, at number 45.

Links

See the Accountancy Age Top 50 table

Last year's Top 50 table

UK firms push £7bn mark

Consolidation is alive and well

Mixed success as Uncle Sam seeks to split Big Five

Huge growth in corporate finance and insolvency

New big fish gobbles up mid-tier rivals

Traditional services stay strong

The fastest growing firms

Top 50: Opinion

It's all about perception, stupid

The arrogance of keeping Big Five results secret