Last night we finally learned KPMG's revenue results for FY 2012 and they were…UGH.
Leave it to my former employer to set me up and allow me to make a prediction that was DOOMED to be wrong. For whatever reason, I thought the House of Klynveld could pull off 8% global revenue growth, what with booming non-audit services and all, and overtake Ernst & Young for 3rd on the medal stand.
Um, no.
Eight percent wasn't a gimmie, but it wasn't outside the firm's capabilities either. In FY 2011, they had over 10% global growth, the largest of the Big 4. This year they managed 1.4% global growth. The press release has the larger, "local currency" growth number out front, which is a PR move so transparent that anyone with the attention span of a gnat can see that for the diversion it is.
ANYWAY, here's the final revenue rundown for the Big 4:
KPMG – $23.0 billion
Growth was strongest in advisory services, which grew by 8.3 percent, to $7.86 billion, and in tax, which grew by 6.3 percent to $4.86 billion while audit revenues grew by only 0.9 percent, to $10.31 billion.
“On the audit side, the market has never been more competitive and we are focused on continuing to improve audit quality, as evidenced by our significant investments in our global audit platform that surpassed $50 million, in addition to the $100 million invested over the past several years.”
[W]hile the firm was hopeful of matching last year's annual growth rate in 2013, it would be tough. "We would like to maintain the growth rate but we are going to have to work hard and run harder to do that," he told The Australian yesterday. "It was by and large a fairly difficult year. It got more difficult as the year went on. That is going to flow into a pretty challenging 12 months as we move forward."
