- A creditable performance in tough market conditions. We grew revenue while investing heavily and reshaping our business to help clients with growth
- Certain service lines such as Risk Consulting and Management Consulting grew well, reflecting continuing demand for advisory services around risk and performance optimisation in uncertain times. The Financial Services sector was one of the key drivers in this, where we grew market share
- We are still investing in helping our clients enter high growth markets and return to a growth agenda – for example, our recent investment in opening a hub in Tech City
- Other service lines were broadly flat. Audit remains a highly competitive market which is also very cost-conscious. We won some notable audits including FTSE 100 Kazakhmys Plc and other listed companies such as the Stobart Group as well as three of the Audit Commission contracts
- Profitability was down. We maintained staff levels in some areas of the business in anticipation of wider economic recovery. Once it became clear that recovery remained more distant, we had to implement a number of job losses, thereby incurring some one-off costs
- We also continued to invest in broader capabilities during the year – for example our purchase of IT advisory firm Xantus
- Communities: record amount raised for Barnardo’s (nearly £1.3m) over course of highly successful two year partnership
- Strong volunteering culture saw growth in volunteering hours
- Lent our full corporate support to causes that we believe in, such as the Living Wage
- Took on 800 young people this year – 650 graduates and 150 students on our highly successful School Leaver Programme – a key plank of our determination to improve social mobility and access to the professions
- Named Global Firm of the Year for the third year running in the British Accountancy awards; second most attractive graduate employer behind Google in Universum’s annual survey; and named “Sustainable Firm of the Year” by International Accounting Bulletin
Simon Collins, UK Senior Partner at KPMG, said:
“2012 was a challenging year. We were pleased to grow revenues, and some parts of our business such as Risk Consulting and Management Consulting have seen double digit growth. We continue to invest in these areas and in helping our clients prepare for growth. Our profitability fell because of investment and because we maintained high staff levels in some areas of our business in anticipation of a wider economic recovery that failed to materialise. Nonetheless we continue to invest for the future. There are signs that market conditions are improving slowly, and the first few months of our new financial year have been encouraging. Having put in place a number of measures to reshape our business, I am confident that the right foundations are in place for 2013.”
Revenues
2012 2011
Total £1,774m £1,707m (+4%)
Audit £469m £456m (+3%)
Tax £380m £392m (-3%)
Risk Consulting £250m £226m (+11%)
Mgmt Consulting £286m £255m (+12%)
T&R £389m £378m (+3%)
(Transactions & Restructuring)
UK Profit £349m £403m (-13%)
Partners (average) 602 579
Staff (average) 10,574 10,150