Growth across all regions sees PwC lift global revenue to $53 billion
Despite economic headwinds in several major markets, PwC has grown its global revenues by 10% in local currency terms to over $53 billion. All continents contributed to the growth.
The growth of the Big Four firm, 6% in US dollar terms, was driven by revenue expansion in each of PwC’s lines of business – Assurance, Advisory, and Tax and Legal Services.
The largest division, Advisory (which includes strategy consulting outfit Strategy&), booked 13% growth to $22.6 billion. “We’ve met the demand of our clients to deliver transformation consulting across the entire value chain – from strategy and implementation to run and operate,” said Mohamed Kande, Global Advisory Leader at PwC.
While work in the firm’s M&A practice slowed, “our work to advise on and support our clients’ mergers, acquisitions and disposals remained relatively strong throughout the year” he said.
Not surprising, PwC’s restructuring team fared well in a more downturn-environment, with the number of corporate reorganisations or distressed restructuring projects significantly higher.
Global revenue of the Assurance division grew by 8.9% to $18.7 billion, with the largest chunk of that amount coming from audit services. “Audit remains the cornerstone of our brand and the key driver for growth in our Assurance business,” said James Chalmers, Global Assurance Leader at PwC.
“We also see increasing demand for assurance over a range of non-financial information, such as cyber and ESG disclosure, as companies seek to build trust with their stakeholders in new areas. We expect to see this trend continue in future years.”
Revenues of the Tax, Legal and Workforce businesses grew by 13% to $11.8 billion. This growth number excludes revenues from the global mobility and immigration business which was sold in April 2022 for $2.2 billion.
Commenting on the firm’s performance, PwC’s Global Chair Bob Moritz said: “Our focus on delivering the quality services that our stakeholders need to prosper today and to prepare their organisations for the future has driven another year of growth for us. I am proud of the hard work and dedication our PwC people have shown over the last year.”
Growth was in part driven by inorganic activity, with PwC closing 17 acquisitions around the world in its 2022/23 financial year (which ended on 30 June 2023).
From a regional perspective, the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) revenues were up by 10% (while losing its previous revenues in Russia as the local firm was kicked out of the network in July last year), the Americas saw revenues grow by 11%, while Asia Pacific revenues were up 7%.
Addressing the Australian government tax scandal directly, Moritz continued to promote the firm’s trust-building mantra. “This year, deep changes are afoot that represent turning points for humanity, from explosive advances in AI deployment to the accelerating impacts of climate change. The New Equation is our strategy to help business leaders enhance trust with their stakeholders and achieve sustained outcomes amidst turbulent change.”
Globally, PwC remains the second largest of the Big Four accounting and consulting groups.
