It’s official, revenue season for global Big 4 firms has come to a close. And it wasn’t a particularly great year for any of them as they continued to struggle with low demand for consulting services and low attrition keeping their salary costs higher than they’d like.
Alright, KPMG, let’s see what you got.
KPMG International announces annual globally aggregated revenues for KPMG firms of US$38.4 billion for the year ended 30 September 2024 (FY24) — an increase of 5.1% in local currency and 5.4% US$ from FY23.
KPMG member firms saw growth across our multi-disciplinary model, amid challenging global economic conditions:
- Tax & Legal Services grew by 10%, driven by client demand for our AI enabled managed service and transformation capability, our legal capability and assisting clients navigate global tax reform.
- Audit grew 6%, leveraging the benefits of significant investments in audit quality and AI technology and strong demand for ESG assurance services.
- Advisory grew 2%, with continued demand for our market-leading alliances and digital transformation services.
Remember that “multi-disciplinary model” thing is a direct jab at EY — and any other large firm thinking about separating their audit and consulting businesses in order to free themselves from pesky independence requirements. By using that phrase, KPMG is signaling to clients that they’re a one-stop shop for professional services, to the extent the aforementioned independence rules would not prevent them from being that.
While KPMG reported the least revenue of Big 4 firms — $28.8 billion less than first place Deloitte, at that — you may be surprised to hear that they beat out Deloitte, EY, and PwC on overall growth. No, really.
By region, Asia Pacific is really on the struggle bus. However, Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMA) is surging for KPMG just as we’ve seen for their competitors. Everyone should be keeping an eye on Africa in particular, we have good intel that the large firms are starting to make some moves there.
KPMG FY24 member firm revenues (US$ billions):
| Regions | FY24 | FY23 | Local Growth* | US$ Growth |
| Americas | 15.2 | 14.6 | 4.2% | 4.0% |
| Asia Pacific | 6.0 | 6.1 | 0.5% | -1.6% |
| EMA | 17.2 | 15.7 | 7.6% | 9.4% |
| Total | 38.4 | 36.4 | 5.1% | 5.4% |
By service line, Tax & Legal came very close to hitting double digit growth. Of Big 4 firms, not a single one reported double digit growth in any service line for 2024.
| Functions | FY24 | FY23 | Local Growth* | US$ Growth |
| Audit | 13.4 | 12.6 | 6.2% | 6.4% |
| Tax & Legal Services | 8.7 | 7.9 | 9.6% | 9.9% |
| Advisory | 16.3 | 15.9 | 2.0% | 2.4% |
| Total | 38.4 | 36.4 | 5.1% | 5.4% |
The Americas and Asia Pacific headcounts shrunk while EMA grew, carrying overall headcount growth up by a point. But it shrunk for the region we care about.
Headcount
| Regions | FY24 | FY23 | Growth |
| Americas | 62,121 | 62,781 | -1% |
| Asia Pacific | 56,154 | 57,465 | -2% |
| EMA | 157,013 | 153,178 | 3% |
| Total | 275,288 | 273,424 | 1% |
Do we care about partner and director numbers? Whatever, here they are.
| Level | FY24 | % Men | % Women |
| Partners | 13,410 | 75.6 | 24.4 |
| Directors | 12,303 | 64.2 | 35.8 |
| Leadership (Partners and Directors) | 25,713 | 70.1 | 29.9 |
| Other employees | 249,575 | 48.7 | 51.3 |
| Total | 275,288 | 50.7 | 49.3 |
With all four Big 4 firms having reported (unaudited) revenue now, we can finally get a dick measuring contest out of the way and find out who did better (or worse) in what. We’ll do that in a follow-up post here shortly. For now, here’s the overall revenue leaderboard and growth over 2023:
Deloitte: $67.2 billion (3.1% increase in local currency, 3.6% increase in USD)
PwC: $55.4 billion (3.7% in local currency, 4.3% in USD)
EY: $51.2 billion (3.9% in local currency, ?? in USD)
KPMG: $38.4 billion (5.1% in local currency and 5.4% USD).
Better luck next year, everyone.
