Deloitte praises London's 'excellence'

Deloitte made over £1.8bn in revenues last year, as chief executive John Connolly hailed London as a 'centre of excellence for professional services'.

The Big Four firm booked a revenue increase of 15.6% on the previous year, with profits of £572m, 17% up on 2005-06.

Connolly himself earned £4.6m for his work in leading the firm, ensuring he remains the highest-paid accountant in the top firms.

The firm said the growing dominance of the City of London underpinned the results.

'Our performance reflects strong markets creating growing opportunities to serve our clients, our strength in gaining new clients, the importance of London as both the primary global financial and professional services centre, and particularly, in the level of mergers and acquisition activity,' Connolly said.

Citing the huge sums made by both accounting and law firms, he told Accountancy Age: 'London has become a centre of excellence for professional services.'

The growth means that Deloitte is likely to meet its ambitious £2bn in two years target set 18 months ago. The firm needs growth of 11% this year to reach its goal.

'We are hoping to do better than that,' said Connolly.

The growth was driven mainly by increases in tax revenues, up by 19.2%. The firm now makes more than £500m from tax advice alone, at £508m.

'The recent actions by the UK government to address UK business tax competitiveness are driving significant activity amongst our international clients focusing on the tax efficacy of their global operations,' Connolly said.

He also claimed that the firm was 'growing market share,' and that he did not expect rivals to match Deloitte's numbers.

Deloitte partners now earn an average of £877,000, the firm said, compared with £765,000 last year, an increase of 14%.