EY HAS TRUMPETED its latest global revenues for the year ending June 2014, with a combined revenue pool of US$27.4bn (£16.93bn).
The rise represents a 6.8% uplift over its 2013 results in local-currency terms and 6% in dollar terms.
The Big Four firm’s advisory services was its star performer, delivering stellar growth of 14.4%, followed by transaction advisory services registering a 6.5% uptick, while assurance was up 4.5%; and tax 4.3%.
Mark Weinberger, EY’s global chairman and CEO, said: “I am very proud of our people’s efforts, which resulted in another strong year of growth for EY. This follows our market-leading performance last year.
“This financial year began with the launch of the new EY brand under Vision 2020 – our plan to be the leading professional services organisation by 2020. It finished with a set of accomplishments and results that show us moving from strength to strength.”
Employee numbers were boosted by 60,000 new recruits to 190,000 – last year it had 175,000 employees. A quarter of EY’s new partners are from countries in its emerging markets, with 26% of them female.
And for the second year in a row, EY secured the Universum accolade of World’s Most Attractive Employer poll of business students. It also scooped the second most attractive employer of all businesses worldwide.
Echoing that fusion of economics and geography, Weinberger pointed to EY’s emerging market practices, which grew by 8.7% – down 3.3% on its 2013 performance – as the core driver set shape its future.
“Emerging markets will continue to drive economic growth for the foreseeable future. By 2020, we’re predicting about 30% of our revenue will be from emerging markets and we have earmarked US$1.5bn for investment to support that growth.”
Geographically, the Americas delivered a rise of 9.1%, but it was Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA) – boosted by a 16.5% increase in Indian revenues – that was the jewel in its global performance crown.
EY’s fastest growing sector practices were life sciences – up 16.9% at $1.4bn and government and public sector, delivering $1.8bn of tax payer-derived income, a lift of 14.6% in an era of dramatically slashed public spending.
EY has also vowed to pump $400m into state-of-the-art audit technologies and processes to enhance audit quality and improve connectivity.