Fresh off Deloitte's announcement, EY reported FY14 revenues and — shock! — everything is looking good. Not quite Deloitte-level good but they've still got a few more years before 2020, which is the year they plan to take over professional services.
EY reports combined global revenues of $27.7 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2014, a 6% increase over last year.
Notably, EY says it brought on 60,000 new warm bodies for its chairs this year, bringing global headcount to a record 190,000.
For service lines, Advisory grew 14.4%; Transaction Advisory Services grew 6.5%; Assurance grew 4.5%; and Tax grew 4.3%. Clearly we're seeing a trend here, and not just with EY.
EY says it isn't simply sitting on a bunch of cash, rather, making investments to reach its 2020 goal. Like a $400 million audit revamp (EY Canvas?):
- Assurance: EY is making significant multi-year investments to transform the audit, to continuously improve audit quality and to fulfill stakeholder and public interest responsibilities. US$400m investments are being made in state-of-the-art audit technologies and processes to enhance audit quality and improve connectivity and collaboration.
Carmine Di Sibio, EY’s Global Managing Partner – Client Service, says:
“Investor confidence is the foundation of a strong global economy and sustainable audit quality is critical to that confidence. Auditors are being asked to do more to identify risk, have a forward-looking perspective and deliver high-quality results.
“We are making investments in process, people and technology, and combining this with advances in analytics to transform and increase the value and quality of the audit.”
- Advisory: Advisory continues to grow organically, as well as through targeted acquisitions, to complement existing services and offerings. Substantial investments in digital, disruptive technologies and business analytics will further enhance Advisory’s ability to deliver transformational services to clients.
- Transaction Advisory Services (TAS): For a fifth consecutive year TAS performance outpaced a subdued mergers and acquisitions market, as clients looked to EY for strategic investment advice on how they raise and manage their capital. The combination with global strategy consultants Parthenon underlines TAS' investment in broader strategic services for FY15.
- Tax: EY continues to invest in resources to help clients globally to comply with the ever-changing legislative and regulatory requirements impacting their businesses. Tax has strengthened and enhanced other services, including doubling the number of countries where it practices law. The strategic acquisition of Thomson Reuters' Tax Preparation and Court Accounting Outsourcing businesses will enable EY to further expand tax offerings to financial services organizations.
