Equity partners at PwC in the U.K. didn’t quite get the haul that their fellow equity partners at Deloitte U.K. got recently, but let’s just say they aren’t going hungry anytime soon.
From the Financial Times:
More than 900 equity partners, who share in PwC UK’s profits, will receive an average £765,000 for the year to June 2019 — a 7 per cent pay increase from £712,000 last year, according to the company’s results on Monday. The figure is the highest since 2009, when partners earned a record £777,000.
Papa Whiskey Charlie revealed on Sept. 16 that profit for the 2019 financial year topped more than £1 billion, up from £938 million in 2018.
The firm’s revenue, which also includes results from PwC Middle East, went up 12% to £4.23 billion in 2019, allowing PwC to retain the title of the largest U.K. accounting firm in terms of revenue. Assurance was the top revenue-generator of PwC’s four main business lines with £1.4 billion, followed by tax at £1.1 billion, consulting at £950 million, and deals at £773 million.
But PwC isn’t No. 1 in the distributable profit per partner category. That is led by Deloitte, which paid out an average of £882,000 to its 699 equity partners for the year ending May 31.
Big 4 firms seem to be giving the middle finger to critics who say they shouldn’t be throwing that kind of money at partners after being fined millions of pounds by U.K. regulators for doing really bad audits. In June 2018, PwC was fined £6.5 million by the Financial Reporting Council for its horrible audit of the now-defunct British retailer BHS.
One of those critics is longtime Big 4 nuisance Prem Sikka:
PricwaterhouseCoopers' 913 partners collect £765k each. Key to their riches – dud audits, peddling tax avoidance schemes, benevolent friends in high places showering the firm with taxpayer-funded contracts. There's No Business Like Accountancy Business.https://t.co/4Kk9puhgfe
— Prem Sikka (@premnsikka) September 17, 2019
EY should release its 2019 U.K. results in late October, while KPMG will likely release its U.K. revenue in early December.
