Deloitte sees revenues fall in tough market

The recession has reversed the gains of Big Four firm Deloitte which this
week reported revenues down 2% compared with 2008, when it celebrated finally
breaking through the £2bn mark.

Gross revenue plateaued at £1.97bn this year owing to what John Connolly,
Deloitte senior partner and chief executive described as ‘extremely tough
markets’.

Attention will now turn to the results of the rest of the Big Four which
should report in the autumn. Last year KPMG barely managed positive growth with
an upturn of just 0.7%.

At Deloitte, audit and the consulting division saw growth of 7% and 3%
respectively.

However net revenues were down 7% in tax and 9% in corporate finance. There’s
less to go around for partners who will receive a share of £601m, down 6.1% on
the 2008 numbers, with the average profit-per-partner falling 7.5% to £883,000.

‘Overall business performance was satisfactory in extremely tough markets,’
Connolly said. ‘Looking forward, we anticipate only a fragile and slow recovery,
and our success will continue to be the product of our exceptionally talented
people being relentlessly committed to our clients, to market leading,
innovative service and to an obsession with quality.’

Deloitte broke through the £2bn barrier for revenues in 2008, a target
Connolly had set for himself in 2006 as the ‘two in two’ project.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, with a June year end, should report its figures next
with KPMG following later. Ernst & Young’s UK figures will emerge when the
firm files to Companies House. In the Accountancy Age Top 50 +50 PwC
reported a growth rate of 7% for the 2008 year end, Deloitte 11.5%, KPMG 0.7%
and Ernst & Young 4.6%.