KPMG Revenues Increase 14.5%, Some Credit Crisis Impact, BRICs Shine

KPMG just announced today its 2008 revenues, which have increased 14.5% from US$19.8 billion to US$22.7 billion for the year ending September 30, 2008. In local currency terms growth was only 8.4%, the difference of 6.1% being attributable to the declining US dollar against all major world currencies in this period.

By service, Audit grew to $10.7 billion in 2008 from $9.4 billion in 2007, up 14%; Tax increased to $4.7 billion from $4.0 billion, up a strong 18.3%; and Advisory increased to $7.3 billion from $6.4 billion, up13.0% for the year.

By geography, Americas grew to $7.2 billion in 2008 from $6.6 billion in 2007, up a modest 8.8%; Asia Pacific grew to $3.1 billion from $2.6 billion, up a whopping 21.6%; and Europe, Middle East, Africa increased to $12.4 billion from $10.7 billion, up a solid 16.3%.

While Americas grew relatively modestly, growth outside the US was strong, notably the BRIC countries saw spectacular growth, Brazil was up 39%, Russia saw revenues rise 64.5% India zoomed up 49%, China rose 26% and Africa revenues increased 16.5%. Central and Eastern Europe was up 34.4%, the Commonwealth of Independent States grew 62, Spain posted 29% and Denmark 25%.

In Europe, KPMG in Spain, KPMG in the Netherlands and KPMG in Belgium voted this year to join the KPMG merger in Europe along with U.K., Germany and Switzerland, making KPMG Europe LLP Europe’s largest fully integrated accounting firm.

Despite these great numbers, KPMG was not immune from the credit crisis. Timothy P. Flynn, Chairman, KPMG International, said. “As we witnessed the accelerated impact of the credit crisis in recent months, it became clear that businesses in every region and in every sector are being confronted with unprecedented challenges to maintain liquidity, anticipate fluctuating customer demand and maintain operating performance.”

KPMG’s fiscal year starts on September 30, 2007 and ends September 30, 2008 which coincides exactly with the onset of the global credit crisis in October 2007. Compared to the other Big 4 accounting firms, KPMG captures a full three months more of economic impact in this fiscal year. Its growth is then expectedly smaller than that say of Deloitte which grew 18.6% and E&Y which grew 16.2%.

We’ll blog on comparative Big4 performance shortly.