PwC records 5% growth to global revenues of $45 billion

PwC has recorded growth of 5 percent in US dollar currency terms over its past financial year, with the accounting and consulting firm reporting global revenues of $45 billion for 2021.

Professional services giant PwC is the latest of the Big Four to report its global revenues for 2021, with the firm bringing in $45 billion for its financial year till the end of June – a figure landing it squarely in the middle of rivals Deloitte and Ernst & Young. The Asia Pacific was PwC’s stand-out performer, its regional revenues growing by 6.2 percent in constant rates against 2 percent worldwide.

“Our financial performance in FY21 was solid,” said PwC’s Chief Administrative Officer Dana McIlwain. “This performance was driven by clients’ ongoing need for assurance services and increasing demand for deals and restructuring work. We invested $2.6 billion in our people and our operations throughout the year, and as a result believe all of our businesses are well positioned to take account of the economic resurgence in the year ahead.”

Led by a strong performance in South Korea, which grew by 12.3 percent year-on-year, and a cited return to growth in Australia, PwC’s Asia Pacific region contributed $8.8 billion to the overall total – representing a rise of about $3 billion over the past five years. While the Americas and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) provided a fairly even split, of around $18 billion each, the former was especially flat due to conditions in the US.

As for PwC’s major service lines, there was almost nothing separating Assurance and Advisory, with both contributing just over $17 billion apiece to the global total, while Tax brought in the remaining $11 billion. Advisory was the fastest growing of the three, up by 3.1 percent and driven by particularly strong demand for technology-enabled business transformations as a response to Covid-19, along with restructuring and increased transactions.

In terms of headcount, PwC is now pushing the 300,000 mark in over 155 countries worldwide (including around 8,000 in Australia and almost 100,000 across the Asia Pacific on the back of 9 percent growth), and over the course of the year welcomed 90,000 new recruits as part of its five-year plan to create 100,000 new jobs. The bulk of the hires were in the firm’s Assurance division, although as a ratio advisory saw the most growth, adding a net 10,000 people.

“I’m tremendously proud of all we achieved in a challenging year, and the way we did it, leading with our values and people-first approach,” said PwC’s Global Chairman Bob Moritz. “Our top priority has been safeguarding the health, safety and well-being of our colleagues. With their resilience and steadfast commitment, we have remained focused, working together to deliver quality work and innovative solutions for our stakeholders across the world.”

Unlike in Australia, where PwC is the largest of the Big Four, the $45 billion global take for 2021 sees PwC’s revenues fall precisely in middle of those reported by Deloitte and EY – the former which cracked the $50 billion barrier for the first time and latter which broke through the $40 billion threshold (the smallest of the quartet, KPMG, will report at the end of the year).

The results, on three years ago, show a widening of the gap to Deloitte, with EY slowly closing in.

Yet, PwC is expecting a stronger bounce-back over the coming year, in line with economic growth and on the back of the 18 percent year-on-year rise the firm witnessed in the final quarter of the year – albeit against a difficult corresponding period of 2020. “We project that our revenue growth will remain robust through FY22,” the firm concluded in its annual statement, citing increasing demand for risk-related services and broader assurance work around ESG.