Advisory fees drive KPMG global sales to $25bn

NEARLY $25bn (£16bn) of revenues were booked by KPMG firms globally during 2013/14, a 6.3% increase in local currency terms.

American advisory fees were a big driver for KPMG International for the year ending 30 September 2014, up 15%, while Ireland, Spain, Switzerland and the UK drove EMEA growth of 4.7%.

Total advisory revenues were up 10.4% to $9.1bn – with increases across management, risk and transactional consulting lines.

The firm is halfway through a five-year, billion dollar global investment programme to develop new data and analytics products and services, which saw it recently announce a tie-up with McLaren Applied Technologies, and take an equity stake in trend intelligence business Bottlenose.

“The quality and breadth of professional services we offer, combined with significant investments we’ve made to strengthen and broaden our services and capabilities, has enabled us to achieve strong and sustainable growth in 2014,” said John Veihmeyer, chairman, KPMG International. “At the same time, we have recruited 18,000 graduates and grown our headcount to 162,000 professionals.”

A record 54,000 graduates and experienced hires were recruited during the year, while 350 new partners were brought in by the firm. Its workforce grew by 7,000 to more than 162,000 partners and staff.