KPMG, the global network of professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services, announced member firm combined revenues totaling US$20.63 billion for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, versus US$20.11 billion for the prior fiscal year, representing a 2.6 percent increase in US dollars; a 0.1 percent increase in local currency terms.

"These combined FY10 revenues overall reflect positive and improving business performance across the KPMG network of firms and functional businesses worldwide," said Timothy P. Flynn, Chairman of KPMG International.

"This improvement underscores the strength of our brand and that, in a significantly changing economic and regulatory environment, clients and stakeholders value how the high-performing people of KPMG are cutting through complexity, delivering informed perspectives and clear solutions to them," he said.

Flynn added, "KPMG was pleased to be honored by Universum, the global talent consultant, this year for its ability to attract the very best people. Universum announced that students worldwide ranked the KPMG network globally second, behind only Google, as an 'ideal' employer. This is strong affirmation of our priority to making KPMG a magnet for talent and a place where people can maximize their potential.

"The caliber of talent is a true differentiator among professional services firms in the global marketplace, and KPMG member firms worldwide will continue to invest in their people in the year ahead, attracting the best and most diverse talent. Our growth plans call for us to recruit approximately 250,000 people over the next five years," Flynn said.

Among the geographic regions, growth this year in Asia Pacific – KPMG's strongest performing region – continued to demonstrate the far-reaching opportunities among developing markets. Revenues in the BRIC countries as a group grew 7.5 percent for the year. Also, the fastest growing among the largest member firms was India, growing in excess of 20 percent, reflecting continued investment and growth in the Indian economy.

"Despite the persistent economic issues globally, KPMG's commitment to emerging and high-growth markets has produced meaningful growth for those country member firms. KPMG continues to actively invest in these markets and to ensure our people have the international experience and the industry-specific competencies required in these geographies," Flynn said.

"KPMG also continues to make significant investments in enhancing its global delivery model. These include expanding the scope of KPMG global centers in India, increasing our presence in China and other emerging and high-growth markets, and deepening our capabilities in strategic markets around the world," he said.

Heightened demand for Advisory Services

"The past year also witnessed a return to growth of KPMG's Advisory business, spotlighting the services that clients require in a very challenging and complex business environment," Flynn said. "Notably, growth in the Asia Pacific region was driven largely by Advisory practice growth.

"There has been unprecedented change in the economic, regulatory, political, and social environments – and these changes are likely to accelerate," he said. "Looking ahead, KPMG's global strategy sets our focus on the opportunities with the highest growth potential." For example, KPMG's perspective on key industry sectors focuses on a very dynamic environment. The financial services industry continues to revolutionize as companies reshape and refocus in response to new regulation; within healthcare, the developed economies are grappling with issues including aging populations and rising costs, and in the public sector, pressure has mounted for governments to reduce costs and become more efficient.

"These and other trends are driving clients to completely transform their business models – as they reevaluate their finance and risk systems, resize their cost base, pursue new acquisitions and divestitures, change their governance and reporting, and revise their customer distribution models," Flynn said.

"As a result, they are turning to advisers for traditional consulting skills – coupled with deep know-how in risk, regulatory and tax matters that is independent from any particular technology or outsourcing solution," he said.

Service line revenues

Global revenues for fiscal 2010 in KPMG's Audit services totaled US$9.91 billion versus US$9.95 billion in aggregated revenues last year. This represented a 0.4 percent decline in U.S. dollars; a 2.9 percent decline in local currency terms.

KPMG's Advisory services recorded combined global revenues of US$6.57 billion in 2010, versus US$6.07 billion last year, an 8.3 percent rise in US dollars, and a 5.5 percent increase in local currency terms.

Advisory grew across all three regions with particularly strong growth in the Americas at 10.8 percent, and Asia Pacific at 9.9 percent, as well as good growth of 2.6 percent in the more mature EMA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) market.

The Performance and Technology group was the main driver of Advisory growth, increasing by 12.7 percent, with double-digit growth in large member firms including Canada, the UK, France and the US and also in the emerging and high-growth markets of China, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), India and Brazil.

Revenues for Tax services in 2010 totaled US$4.15 billion across the firms compared with US$4.09 billion in 2009, a 1.4 percent increase in US dollars and a 0.7 percent decline in local currency terms. Among the growth areas for Tax services in the last fiscal year were Transfer Pricing with 1.5 percent growth, International Executive Services with 1.1 percent, and Indirect Tax with 0.7 percent.

Performance by region

In Asia Pacific, KPMG's strongest performing region, member firms achieved combined revenues of US$3.43 billion, representing 2.2 percent growth in local currency terms and 11.7 percent growth in US dollars. Taiwan, Korea and Vietnam all had double-digit growth. Taiwan had 18.2 percent growth, Korea 11.9 percent growth, and Vietnam 11.7 percent, all in local currency terms.

For the EMA region, combined KPMG member firm FY10 revenues totaled US$10.83 billion versus US$10.73 billion last year, an increase of 0.1 percent in local currency terms and a 0.9 percent increase in US dollars.

In the EMA region, the latter half of the year saw improved performance. India was the fastest growing among the largest KPMG member firms in the EMA region. Other strong performers included Africa, which attained 8.5 percent local growth, Norway at 7.4 percent, and France with 3.5 percent growth this year.

In the Americas region, combined FY10 revenue totaled US$6.37 billion in 2010 versus US$6.31 billion last year, a decline of 1.4 percent in local currency terms, and an increase of 1.0 percent in US dollars.

Latin American countries performed very strongly, with the majority of the countries achieving double-digit growth, including Brazil at 10.3 percent, Venezuela at 28.5 percent, Ecuador at 27.3 percent, and Argentina with 17.9 percent growth.