PwC posts revenues of $42.4 billion for its 2019 financial year

Professional services giant PwC has posted global revenues of $42.4 billion for its 2019 financial year to the end of June - up by 7 percent.

The Big Four professional services pecking order has been maintained for 2019, with PwC posting global revenues of $42.4 billion for its 2019 fiscal year to July, up by 7 percent in local currency terms on the previous period’s take of $41.3 billion. This places the firm in second globally behind Deloitte, which continues to widen the gap with a $46.2 billion haul for 2019, while Ernst & Young continues to trail in third at revenues of $36.4 billion.

Like its Big Four rivals, as well another professional services giant in Accenture (which has now also overtaken PwC by recording its own recent revenues of $43.2 billion), PwC’s growth was driven by the Asian region, which in contributing $6.1 billion to the overall total was up by 9 percent, while the Middle East region also performed exceptionally well over the past year. Still, the Americas and Western Europe combined to bring in a nearly $32 billion share.

“Over the past year, we’ve continued to focus on delivering value to our stakeholders, working hard to build trust and help our clients solve their most complex problems,” stated Global Chairman Bob Moritz. “As a result, PwC businesses grew in all major markets around the world. Our strong growth in revenues has enabled us to continue to invest in our businesses and our people. Investments in technology are making our services more relevant and enhancing the quality of our work.”

Also like its traditional accountancy rivals, the balance of PwC’s business continues to tilt towards its Advisory practice, which over the past year has grown by over 10 percent to a worth of ~$14.4 billion – to be fast catching up to the firm’s Assurance practice, up by 4.6 percent to $17.4 billion. The third of PwC’s major service divisions – Tax & Legal Services – grew by 6.4 percent to contribute the remaining $10.7 billion to the firm’s 2019 total revenues. 

In terms of headcount, PwC now employs over 275,000 people worldwide (across more than 1,000 offices in 157 countries), to be up by a net 10 percent, with 25,000 new jobs created over the past year.  In total, nearly 70,000 people joined PwC last year – including around 38,000 graduates and 26,750 professionals – while 760 people joined the firm’s partnership ranks worldwide at the beginning of the new financial year, including twelve of those in Singapore.

And PwC’s talent base is set to grow further, with the firm announcing a massive $3 billion investment into up-skilling its global workforce and developing and sharing technologies to support clients and communities over the coming four years, including S$10 million set aside in Singapore. The investment will include a variety of in-house and public initiatives, such as skills academies, digital fitness apps, and specialist training in emerging technologies.

“We are kick-starting this with a two-year comprehensive multi-platform programme designed to digitally up-skill our people (locally over 3,500),” said PwC Singapore’s Executive Chairman Yeoh Oon Jin. “The programme is intended to drive a culture of innovation where each staff and partner is empowered with the right mind-set and capabilities in data and automation to determine the path they want to take, and even play a part in shaping the profession of the future.”

In a discussion with Business Insider, Moritz noted that PwC’s “New World, New Skills” training initiative was in part an effort to assuage the fear of job losses among its own employees in the face of automation and other emerging technologies. “If you opt in, OK, we will not leave you behind. I can’t guarantee you the specific job that you have or want to have. But I can guarantee you you’re going to have employment here.”