Looks like offshoring and layoffs couldn’t save the King’s PwC from a revenue slump this year. The firm has just reported revenue of £6.2 billion (approximately $8.28 billion USD), a dip of 3% from last year’s £6.4b. Don’t worry though, partner pay increased from £865,000 to £935,000 ($1.16 million to $1.25 million USD).
In a dramatic shift from just a few years prior, it was the Middle East business that really dragged the whole team down for fiscal year 2026 even more so than last year when the Middle East plummeted from 26 percent growth in 2024 to just 0.4 percent for 2025. Removing ME’s 15% decline from the equation, the UK side of the business actually grew a modest-but-less-depressing 2 percent to £4.4 billion. There’s one other happy note in the annual report:
In the UK, Tax, Consulting, Audit and Deals all grew on the prior year. This momentum helped make Q3 our largest sales quarter on record.
Overall service line performance as reported by PwC:
So audit and tax were up, everything else was down.
PwC’s global numbers won’t be out until later in the fall, likely some time in October. Although every firm has been suffering from various slumps ever since all that Covid money dried up, the situation at PwC UK is unique in that they messed up royally in the Middle East and paid dearly for it (not to mention a bit of regional conflict in the mix). We wouldn’t bet on seeing any big declines once Big 4 global revenue starts rolling out…though you never know.
I don’t believe any of the unaudited financial results that the large accounting firms voluntarily announce to the public. In my mind, the only reason PWC would announce that their revenues are down is to provide justification for upcoming headcount reductions.
Your skepticism is justified as always but they actually get independently audited in the UK. Their last annual filing with Companies House is from November 2025, Crowe signed off. You can look it up here.
Not an infallible process as we know but it’s marginally better than the ol’ trust us bro.