Although the figures represent a fall for the Big Four firm, while rivals KPMG, Deloitte and Ernst & Young all showed growth in their latest figures, PwC only just retains its title as top dog.
Compared to PwC, KPMG only managed to pull in just over £1bn in fees on continuing operations, registering an operating profit of £212.2m for the year ended 30 September 2002. The firm’s next set of figures is due for release sometime early in the New Year.
However, for the year ended 31 May 2003, the rebranded Deloitte showed a 33% increase in revenue to £1,228m – following the acquisition of the Andersen practice – just less than £300m behind PwC.
This figure contains income for consulting services that PwC and the other Big Four firms have now spun off. With fees of £352m for audit, £199m for corporate finance and £356m in tax services, Deloitte is some way behind PwC’s comparable sector breakdowns of £757m in assurance, £253m for corporate finance and £495m for tax.
Ernst & Young’s recently released results showed an increase in turnover of 8% to £811.6m, but profit per partner of £478,000 beat that of PwC’s £429,000 per partner, as the firm went through significant cost-cutting exercises.