n top 75 firms survey briefing february 2014 accountancy
The revenue challenge reflects the ongoing challenges in the market. Inevitably one of the biggest costs we have is our employee base Marianne Fallon, director of corporate affairs, KPMG
Our corporate finance practice is beginning to see its pipeline increasing Growth is definitely coming and our clients are through in the number of beginning to increase their opportunities we are seeing with 88 discretionary spending existing clients and new clients. There is Scott Barnes, managing definitely more liquidity in the market partner, Grant Thornton Simon Michaels, managing partner, BDO
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8 year of cuts and mergers
t has been a year of contrasting fortune PKF, could force Baker Tilly down a peg in the A spate of for the UK’s top accountancy firms. pecking order when the merger beds down. 8 mergers Mergers, acquisitions, administrations Meanwhile, BDO itself was consolidating its and rescues have all featured. Some own merger, which came into force during the between the firms have seen falling profits, others final three months of BDO’s financial year. ‘A large top 10 sees theI opposite, with a similar picture emerging amount of our growth has come from the merger,’ for fee income. Although many firms have cut says Simon Michaels, BDO’s managing partner. 8 a shake-up staff numbers, others have been making bold ‘However, there has been some organic at the top, expansion claims. growth in a few areas, predominantly in But amid this complex picture, the sector as financial services, advisory, specialist tax and with more a whole has kept its head above water – overall international projects.’ Encouragingly, Michaels changes set fee income has increased by more than 4% says he has seen the market for the firm’s 8 over the course of the year, with staff numbers services pick up over the last six months of to come, edging up in a similar fashion. In total, the firms 2013. ‘This is definitely coming through in the reports in Accountancy’s 2014 Top 75 survey earned number of opportunities we are seeing,’ he nearly £11.5bn, up from £11bn in the previous says, ‘both with existing clients and new Philip Smith 12 months. Average profits have also increased, clients. There is definitely more liquidity in but only marginally, by around 1%. the market.’ The big story of the year was the demise of However, he does not believe that the RSM Tenon, bringing to a close a decade long Competition Commission’s investigation into story of the listed consolidator. Baker Tilly the large firm audit market has significantly stepped in to acquire the firm in a pre-pack altered the landscape so far. ‘It is a start,’ he administration last September – the combined says, ‘but buyer behaviour is ingrained and it reported income of the two firms topped £330m will take time to change.’ Instead, Michaels in 2013, which would have made them the sixth sees more opportunities for the firm in non- largest firm in the UK. It will be interesting to audit services in this area of the market. see whether this revenue is achieved in the next It is a similar story at Grant Thornton, the 12 months, but each of the firms saw a fall in UK’s fifth largest firm by fee income. Scott income over their latest financial year. Barnes, the firm’s managing partner, saw fee A growing BDO, which reported a 10% income increase 13%, buoyed by significant increase in fees bolstered by its merger with wins in the financial services sector and public
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I don’t think we are heading into a period of exuberant growth but we have definitely We have set made a bet that the UK ourselves a and global economies are challenging getting stronger growth target for the Steve Varley, senior partner, EY coming financial year and so far we are completely on budget Ian Powell, senior partner, PwC
PKF is a game changer for us. We are now working with the agreement of PKFI to select the firms that we want 9 9 Carmine Papa, senior partner, PKF Littlejohn year of cuts and mergers
sector work – the impact of taking on contracts discretionary spending.’ In particular, Barnes from the old Audit Commission was felt during is seeing growth in work outside the south the second half of the firm’s financial year. east of the country. ‘Talking to our partners around the firm, the However, he does not expect the firm to indications are that our clients are now consider any mergers in the near future and beginning to see the benefits of the economic rejects the idea of ‘bulking up for the sake of it’. recovery,’ Barnes says. ‘Our corporate finance Instead, he will focus on targeted deals, such practice is beginning to see its pipeline grow as last July’s acquisition of the financial and our clients are beginning to increase their services arm of Navigant Consulting. 10
big four Fees by service line Fee income: 3,000 Note: Deloitte UK fee income Audit and assurance 2,621 2,689 only, excludes £209m Tax 2,461 revenue for Switzerland 2,500 2,331 2,306 Consulting and corporate finance 2,118 2,000 1,814 1,703 1,774 1,721 1,598 1,631 1,500 1,329 1,205 1,186 1,072 1,000
500
0 2010 2011 2012 2013 2010 2011 2012 2013 2010 2011 2012 2013 2010 2011 2012 2013 PwC Deloitte KPMG EY
www.accountancylive.com 397 481 925 1073 370 722 507 804 907 999 1040 459 517 926 1001 309
350 392 380 343 372 431 455 511 534 529 563 360 634 645 659 680 458 456 469 434 403 444 478 478 628 652 663 742 893 909 963 969
Total of all three n top 75 firms survey briefing february 2014 accountancy
Income by service line
top 75 Audit and accounting
total income of top 75 firms 20 20 % change 6 8 £bn 11.48 Note: 2012 and 2013 top 75, 15 2 2007 to 2011 top 60 11.03 11 5 10 3 14 16 10.33 10 17 18 9.92 5 19 10 9.82 1 11 9.36 0 13 8.80 -5 12 9 15 -10 4 8 -15 -20 7 -25 7 6 -30 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 -35 9
Rank Firm £m £m % 2013 (2012) 2013 2012 change Big Four dominance 1 (1) PwC 969.0 963.0 1 Of course, three quarters of the sector’s fee 30 2 (2) Deloitte1 742.0 663.0 12 10 income is tied up in just four firms – PwC, 3 (3) EY 507.0 478.0 6 Deloitte, EY and KPMG. Combined, they 25 4 (4) KPMG2 434.0 469.0 -7 accounted for more than £8.7bn in fee income, 20 an increase of £352m on the previous year and 5 (5) Grant Thornton 131.1 120.0 9 4 accounting for 76% of total income. 15 6 (6) BDO 111.0 96.0 16 10 All four firms managed to increase their fee 7 (7) Baker Tilly 3 108.0 139.0 -22 10 income, but with varying degrees of success. 8 (8=) Mazars6 81.3 68.8 18 While Deloitte pushed up its fees by 8% and 5 9 (10) Moore Stephens 38.3 57.0 -33 EY by 5.5%, PwC only recorded 2.6% growth 10 (12) Crowe Clark Whitehill 34.4 33.1 4 0 while KPMG struggled to achieve a mere 11 (13) Haines Watts Group7 31.5 31.5 0 10 0.4% increase. -512 (14) UHY Hacker Young 9 25.3 25.7 -2 But the profitability story is different, 10 -1013 (15) Kingston Smith 23.3 23.5 -1 with KPMG outstripping its competitors by 14 (20) MHA MacIntyre Hudson 22.6 21.0 7 producing a 30% hike, driven by a series of 15 (16) Smith & Williamson5 21.1 22.2 -5 job cuts and restructuring across the firm. 10 It was a different scenario at the three other 16 (17) Saffery Champness 18.6 17.4 7 Big Four firms. 17 (18) Wilkins Kennedy 17.6 16.7 5 Deloitte’s profitability fell by 22%, with both 18 (19) Chantrey Vellacott DFK 12.3 12.0 3 PwC and EY recording more modest increases 19= (-) Francis Clark 11.9 11.6 3 of 2% and 3% respectively. Clearly, the firms 19= (-) Buzzacott 11.9 10.0 19 10 are taking different approaches to managing Total 3,352.1 3,268.5 1.4 their businesses. Footnotes: see page 16. This chart only features figures where reported EY, in particular, has made a big deal out of its desire to take on more professional staff in the coming year and was the only Big Four firm 10 to show an increase in staffing levels last year. ‘It is a statement of confidence and intent,’ challenges in the market,’ says Marianne says Steve Varley, EY’s senior partner. ‘In £ 8.74bn Fallon, KPMG’s director of corporate affairs. the first half of this [financial] year, we have ‘Inevitably, one of the biggest costs we have is maintained momentum in line with last year’s our employee base. During the 2013 financial results, which is the culmination of several year we looked at our staff model across the years of strategic planning through the business. There were some parts of the downturn. I don’t think we are heading into The majority business where we didn’t have the right mix, a period of exuberant growth but we have of fee income is and so made some redundancies, but we definitely made a bet that the UK and global earned by the Big Four, have also recruited heavily into other parts of economies are getting stronger.’ accounting for 76% of the business.’ At the same time, the firm also rebranded, total income at £8.74bn, Fallon also adds that the firm looked to dropping the Ernst & Young name, and moving up slightly from £8.35bn improve the efficiency of its cost base. ‘We to the shorter EY label last autumn. in 2011/12 have really focused on how we manage our KPMG’s approach has been different, resources, their mobility and flexibility,’ she attacking its cost base so that it was able to says. She also says the firm is expecting to see boost profits by 30% while seeing its fee real growth in the coming year, but like Varley, income growing marginally to £1.81bn. ‘The she says there is unlikely to be ‘an explosion’ of revenue challenge reflects the ongoing client activity.
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Income by service line
Tax big four pre-tax profit and partners 30 % change 20 25 3,029 3,000 2010 2,971 20 17 2011 2,717 2012 2,598 19 2,500 2013 15 9 8 16 2,173 10 6 2,010 1,994 2 3 10 14 2,000 1,948 5 1 18 11 13 0 1,500 5 15 -3.0% 0.2% 9.0% 4.6% 0.9% -2.0% -5 12 7 1,000 -10 Pre-tax pro t £m Partners 4
Rank Firm £m £m % 2013 (2012) 2013 2012 change 1 (1) PwC 680.0 659.0 3 acquisition trail during 2103: the Haines Watts 2,964 2,991 2 (2) Deloitte1 563.0 529.0 6 Group3000 took on new practices in Bromley and Godalming, while MHA Macintyre Hudson 3 (3) EY 455.0 431.0 6 11 acquired HMT Assurance, which became its 4 (4) KPMG2 343.0 380.0 -10 Reading2500 office. Johnston Carmichael took on 5 (5) Grant Thornton 91.4 91.9 -1 Ritson Smith, while Wilkins2,041 Kennedy acquired 4 1,948 6 (6) BDO 86.0 80.0 8 Matthews2000 Mist during the financial year and 7 (7) Baker Tilly3 77.0 81.0 -5 then CW Fellowes in November 2013. 11 8 (9) Smith & Williamson5 37.3 34.0 10 1500Further down the table, Barber Harrison & +0.9% 9 (11) Haines Watts Group7 23.5 21.0 12 Platt merged with Barron & Barron in York and 10 (13) Mazars6 20.7 19.5 6 Carter Backer Winter+4.8% (CBW) got together with 1000 11 (-) Frank Hirth 20.6 n/a n/a Backstone Franks.Pre-tax pro tIn Scotland, £m FrenchPartners Duncan 12 (12) Moore Stephens 19.7 20.5 -4 merged with Macfarlane Gray. 11 13 (-) SJD Accountancy 19.0 n/a n/a 14 (14) Saffery Champness 15.2 14.2 7 Top 10 aspirations Johnston Carmichael was also part of another 15 (15) Crowe Clark Whitehill 13.8 14.0 -1 intriguing move, as it joined PKF International 16 (-) Buzzacott 12.8 11.8 9 (PKFI). The international network had of 11 17 (17) MHA MacIntyre Hudson 11.3 9.6 18 course been left high and dry by the departure 9 18 (16) UHY Hacker Young 10.4 10.2 2 of its UK firm when PKF (UK) merged with 19 (18) Chantrey Vellacott DFK 8.9 7.8 14 BDO last year. This left PKFI with a large hole 20 (-) Francis Clark 8.5 6.7 27 to fill with no obvious single firm available to Total 2,517.0 2,421.2 1 fill it. So instead, the network took a more 11 Footnotes: see page 16. This chart only features figures where reported regional approach, signing up Johnston Carmichael to cover Scotland and the north, Cooper Parry for the Midlands and Littlejohn for London and the south east. The move is interesting as it points to the 11 Mid-tier expansion prospect of a new top 10 firm if the three But while the big firms have been slugging it £11.48bn members, plus any subsequent joiners, bring out, there has been some interesting movement their operations closer together. further down the league table. Mazars, which PKF Littlejohn, as the firm quickly rebranded saw a 4.7% growth in fee income to £120.4m, itself, had fees of £15.8m, Johnston took on a number of former RSM Tenon Carmichael had some £33.4m while Cooper partners in the East Midlands and Edinburgh. Total fee Parry brought a further £15.6m to the party. And then in December it announced that it income for the top Carmine Papa, PKF Littlejohn’s senior would be acquiring Deloitte’s public sector 75 in 2012/13 was partner, says they are looking for more firms to internal audit business, which provides services £11.48bn, recording 4% join to fill the regional gaps, particularly in the to local government and health organisations in annual growth, up from south west and Manchester. ‘It’s a game London and the south east. £11.03bn changer for us,’ he says, ‘and it has already Mazars says the move would complement its produced a number of referrals and existing strengths in its public sector external reciprocated work. We are now working audit work. The firm also acquired Sarah Butler together with the agreement of PKFI to select Associates, a specialist immigration services the firms that we want.’ consultancy, during its financial year. If the firms were to formally merge, in terms Other firms in the mid-tier were also on the of fee income around the £65m mark, 12
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4,906 4,913 5,131 5,375 862 887 4,906 partner value 736 736 756 income and profit 2013 (2012) Number of: HOW the top 75 is compiled Rank Firm Fees (£m) Pre-tax profit Partners Fee/partner Male partners *Information is collected through (£m) ratio (£000s) 2009 Female partners a questionnaire sent out by 2009 2010 2011 2012 Accountancy and completed 1 (1) PwC 2,689.0 (2,621.0) 740.0 (727.0) 840 (872) 3,201 (3,006) Other staff by firms. Wherever possible, 2 (2) Deloitte1 2,515.0 (2,329.0) 610.0 (560.0) 983 (991) 2,558 (2,350) we adhere to firms’ description of service lines and structure, 3 (3) KPMG2 1,814.0 (1,806.0) 455.0 (349.0) 583 (617) 3,111 (2,927) and rely on the integrity of 4 (4) EY 1,721.0 (1,631.0) 368.0 (358.0) 565 (549) 3,046 (2,971) the information66,035 provided. The aim is to produce consistent 5 (5) Grant Thornton 471.2 (417.1) 73.1 (69.1) 206 (202) 2,287 (2,065) 71,677 63,537 75,599 78,606 information4,913 as far as possible 4 and for this reason we have not 7 (6) BDO 312.0 (283.0) 55.0 (51.2) 209 (196) 1,493 (1,444) excluded firms or groups756 with an 8 (8) Smith & Williamson5 185.8 (179.1) 29.4 (27.9) 261 (254) 712 (705) unusual structure, although the question of whether some in the 12 (14) Crowe Clark Whitehill 60.7 (59.3) 15.3 (15.1) 72 (72) 843 (824) list are ‘firms’ in the traditional 14 (15) Begbies Traynor Group8 51.1 (57.7) 6.7 (6.9) n/a (-) n/a (-) sense remains2010 open to debate. 17 (19) MHA MacIntyre Hudson 39.3 (35.2) 9.6 (9.8) 66 (42) 595 (838) 21 (23) Menzies 30.3 (28.5) 8.4 (8.5) 34 (34) 891 (839) 23 (25) Francis Clark 25.8 (22.1) 8.7 (7.5) 47 (44) 549 (502) top 75 26 (27) FRP Advisory 21.5 (21.8) 8.4 (8.9) 37 (28) 581 (779) 57,868 staffing levels 27 (30) Frank Hirth 21.3 (19.0) 1.9 - 24 (17) 888 (1,116) 12 28 (29) Price Bailey 20.6 (19.3) 3.5 (4.2) 22 (22) 936 (877) 5,085 29 (28) Reeves & Co 20.0 (20.3) 5.8 (5.9) 40 (39) 500 (521) 896 40 (38) Cooper Parry 15.6 (15.8) 5.1 (5.2) 22 (22) 708 (718) 44 (41) Shipleys 12.4 (13.6) 3.9 (5.2) 15 (16) 827 (850) 12 45 (46) Barnes Roffe 12.0 (12.3) 5.2 (5.4) 18 (19) 666 (646) 2012 46 (51) Hillier Hopkins 11.9 (10.8) 3.9 (3.6) 20 (22) 595 (489) 47 (49) James Cowper 11.8 (10.9) 2.5 (2.2) 13 (14) 908 (779) 54 (57) SRLV 10.0 (9.2) 3.0 (3.2) 13 (9) 770 (1,020) 56 (53) Simmons Gainsford 9.9 (10.1) 2.4 (2.2) 15 (14) 658 (718) 12 76,553 57 (56) Rothman Pantall 9.7 (9.6) 2.7 (1.9) 20 (20) 485 (480) 58 (59) Dains 9.4 (8.3) 2.9 (2.5) 18 (20) 519 (415) 5,361 60 (-) Spofforths 9.3 (9.0) 1.7 - 17 (-) 544 (-) 890 61 (-) Scruton Bland13 8.9 (8.8) 2.4 - 11 (-) 809 (-) 12 63 (-) Berg Kaprow Lewis 8.3 (7.7) 2.5 - 12 (-) 692 (-) 64 (-) Cowgill Holloway 8.3 (8.0) 2.2 - 11 (12) 755 (667) 2013 65 (-) Gerald Edelman 8.3 (7.9) 2.8 - 12 (-) 692 (-) 67 (-) French Duncan 8.0 (8.0) 2.0 (2.0) 22 (20) 364 (400) 12 68 (-) Alliotts 7.8 (7.4) 2.3 (2.0) 13 (14) 600 (529) 70 (-) Whittingham Riddell 7.0 (6.9) 1.6 - 12 (-) 583 (-) 72 (-) Jeffreys Henry 5.6 (5.3) 2.2 - 9 (-) 622 (-) 83,039 75 (-) Wright Vigar 4.0 (3.5) 0.9 (0.7) 7 (7) 572 (506) Male partners Total 10,176.6 (9,722.3) 2,450.9 (2,245.1) 4,269 (4,188) 12 Female partners Average 987 857 Other staff Footnotes: see page 16. This chart only features reported P&L
this would put them on a par with Haines Watts, access the UK capital markets, particularly AIM. Crowe Clark Whitehill and Saffery Champness, ‘The model is that we take companies to market all currently ranked just outside the top 10. But and then retain the audit,’ Papa explains. Papa is aiming higher, saying he could see the So it would appear that firms across the board firms breaking into the top 10. ‘That is the plan,’ have been following different paths to weather he says. Such aspiration will no doubt be helped the economic storms of the past few years. Some by an increase in corporate activity as business have held their nerve and retained their staff in confidence turns into substantive action. order to take advantage of the economic upturn, while others have sought to improve efficiency Economic upturn and flexibility. Several have found strength in Papa has already seen a significant uptick in numbers by coming together to offer a greater his corporate finance business over the past six breadth of services. But all will be looking forward months, with overseas companies looking to to the coming year as one of opportunity.
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PwC the view from the top
tax has had a really good five PwC 2013 2012 months and consulting continues to grow. There has been more deal and Fee income £2,689m £2,621m IPO activity, which are both good Profit £740m £727m indicators for the economy. Profit per partner £880,950 £833,715 ‘We are working with the outcome of the Competition Commission’s Partners 840 872 investigation – it is there and has been Staff 16,580 16,700 factored into our finances. But we have real concerns with the EU proposals. The first is the cost for are completely on budget, with businesses for mandatory audit firm growth significantly above last year’s rotation, and the second is that if you 4%. In fact, November 2013 was our say that the incumbent auditor can’t Ian Powell, senior partner at PwC, fastest growing month for five years. pitch then you have immediately says: ‘We have set ourselves a ‘The growth is coming from eliminated one of the competitors challenging growth target for the across the business. There is good from the market. It puts regulation coming financial year and so far we growth in our assurance business, ahead of good governance.’ 13 Smith & Williamson the view from the middle
Kevin Stopps, co-CEO of Smith & Williamson, says: ‘In the first six Smith & Williamson 2013 2012 13 months of the new financial year we saw a 10% increase in revenue Fee income £185.8m £179.1m compared with the same time in the Profit £29.4m £27.9m prior year. Will this be sustained in Profit per partner £112,643 £109,842 the next six months? It could be too 13 early to call but my colleagues are Partners 261 254 optimistic. The economic recovery is Staff 1,193 1,227 fragile, and although economic data could put pressure on interest rates, any increase could be disastrous. deals for the whole of last year. 13 ‘There has been a material ‘Competition will remain over all improvement in transactional-based clients; when we are pitching for new businesses and private clients. activity, and our corporate finance business, the Big Four are being very ‘We are not looking for any team have worked on 13 deals so far aggressive on pricing, even though mergers, we don’t need the scale and [in 2013], compared with only three our focus is on owner-managed it is easier to integrate smaller teams.’ 13
French duncan the view from Scotland The increase in the audit threshold 13 French Duncan 2013 2012 has not helped, but audit is really a thing of the past. Banks are looking at Fee income £8m £8m management accounts that have been Profit £2m £2m examined by a firm of accountants. But we do audit one listed company, Profit per partner £90,900 £100,000 and are in fact one of the few Partners 22 20 independent firms [in Scotland] that Staff 165 140 can still audit PLCs. With the vote on Scottish independence, uncertainty is the income. We are seeing signs of growth biggest problem. People are not going in outsourcing, where we are now ahead with inward or outward doing more management accounts investment, everyone is holding fire. Robert Kerr, chairman at French work and book-keeping services. Even if we don’t get independence, we Duncan, says: ‘We are still in the throes People are realising it is better than already have devolved tax, and if of the recession up here and are quite employing someone for 52 weeks a nothing else happens, we could get a pleased we have maintained our year when they only work 36 weeks. different rate of income tax anyway.’
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top 75 firms Survey: uk accountancy firms league table
Fee/partnerFee/partner ratio ratio Annual accounts Auditor tenure Fee income Fee income Fee income% change2013 £000s2012 £000s Y 2013 £m 2012 £m Partners ear end Rank Firm Status Auditor 2013 (2012) 1 (1) PwC 2,689.0 2,621.0 2.6 3,201 3,006 840 LLP Yes Crowe Clark Whitehill 30/06/13 2003 2 (2) Deloitte1 2,515.0 2,329.0 8.0 2,558 2,350 983 LLP Yes Grant Thornton 31/05/13 2003 3 (3) KPMG2 1,814.0 1,806.0 0.4 3,111 2,927 583 LLP Yes Grant Thornton 30/09/13 1996 4 (4) EY 1,721.0 1,631.0 5.5 3,046 2,971 565 LLP Yes BDO 28/06/13 n/a 5 (5) Grant Thornton 471.2 417.1 13.0 2,287 2,065 206 LLP Yes Mazars 30/06/13 2013 6 (9) Baker Tilly3 337.0 365.0 -7.7 1,066 1,594 316 LLP Yes Kingston Smith 31/03/13 2007 7 (6) BDO4 312.0 283.0 10.2 1,493 1,444 209 LLP Yes PwC 05/07/13 2004 8 (8) Smith & Williamson5 185.8 179.1 3.7 712 705 261 Ltd Yes Grant Thornton 30/04/13 2009 9 (10) Moore Stephens 131.7 135.9 -3.1 834 894 158 Ltd/N n/a n/a 31/12/13 n/a 10 (11) Mazars6 120.4 115.0 4.7 1,115 1,000 108 LLP Yes Crowe Clark Whitehill 31/08/13 n/a 11 (13) Haines Watts Group7 60.8 58.0 4.8 529 496 115 LLP No n/a 31/03/13 n/a 12 (14) Crowe Clark Whitehill 60.7 59.3 2.4 843 824 72 LLP Yes Grant Thornton 31/03/13 2005 13 (16) Saffery Champness 58.9 56.1 4.9 949 951 62 P No n/a 31/03/13 n/a 14 (15) Begbies Traynor Group8 51.1 57.7 -11.4 n/a n/a n/a Listed Yes Deloitte 30/04/13 n/a 14 15 (17) UHY Hacker Young9 48.3 48.8 -1.0 604 588 80 note Yes See note 30/04/13 n/a 16 (18) Kingston Smith10 40.5 40.7 -0.5 686 656 59 LLP Yes Price Bailey 30/04/13 2006 17 (19) MHA MacIntyre Hudson 39.3 35.2 11.6 595 838 66 LLP Yes Hillier Hopkins 31/03/13 2005 18 (21) Johnston Carmichael 33.4 29.6 12.7 630 658 53 LLP Yes Price Bailey 31/05/13 2011 19 (20) Wilkins Kennedy 31.5 30.2 4.1 507 512 62 LLP Yes Harmer Slater 30/04/13 2012 20 (22) Chantrey Vellacott DFK 30.5 28.6 6.8 726 649 42 LLP Yes Grant Thornton 30/12/13 2006 21 (23) Menzies 30.3 28.5 6.2 891 839 34 LLP Yes Princecroft Willis 30/06/13 2009 22 (24) Buzzacott 27.9 25.4 9.6 1,072 1,017 26 LLP Yes Hillier Hopkins 30/09/13 2007 23 (25) Francis Clark 25.8 22.1 16.7 549 502 47 LLP Yes Price Bailey 31/03/13 2011 24 (26) TaxAssist Accountants11 24.5 21.8 12.4 130 119 188 F nte Price Bailey 31/12/12 2007 25 (-) HW Fisher & Company 23.7 23.4 1.4 817 n/a 29 P No n/a 30/04/12 n/a 26 (27) FRP Advisory 21.5 21.8 -1.4 581 779 37 LLP Yes BDO 30/04/13 2010 27 (30) Frank Hirth 21.3 19.0 12.3 888 1,116 24 Yes Manningtons 30/06/13 2004 28 (29) Price Bailey 20.6 19.3 6.7 936 877 22 LLP Yes n/a 31/03/13 2004 29 (28) Reeves & Co 20.0 20.3 -1.5 500 521 40 LLP Yes Clive Owen & Co 31/05/13 2008 30 (32) SJD Accountancy 19.0 17.6 8.0 - 17,600 1 Ltd Yes Kingston Smith 31/10/13 2011 31 (31) Armstrong Watson 18.8 18.1 3.9 570 670 33 P No n/a 31/03/13 n/a 32 (33) Haysmacintyre 18.3 17.4 5.2 678 696 27 P No n/a 31/03/13 n/a 33 (35) Duncan & Toplis 17.8 17.1 4.1 636 633 28 P No n/a 31/03/13 n/a 34 (34) Hazlewoods 17.4 17.1 1.8 916 900 19 LLP Yes Princecroft Willis 30/04/13 2006 35 (36) Streets12 16.9 16.9 n 0.0 845 845 20 note No n/a 30/06/13 n/a 36 (40) Anderson Anderson & Brown 16.7 14.3 16.8 1,392 1,192 12 LLP Yes Bill Hay & Co 31/03/13 2013 37 (43) Bishop Fleming 15.8 13.2 19.7 632 528 25 P No n/a 02/06/13 n/a 38 (37) PKF Littlejohn 15.8 16.2 -2.5 545 523 29 LLP Yes Price Bailey 31/05/13 2009 39 (39) Lovewell Blake 15.7 15.5 1.3 604 596 26 LLP Yes Crowe Clark Whitehill 30/09/13 2011 40 (38) Cooper Parry 15.6 15.8 -1.4 708 718 22 LLP Yes Buzzacott 30/04/13 2003 41 (42) Larking Gowen 13.7 13.5 1.5 685 675 20 P No n/a 31/03/13 n/a 42 (44) AIMS 13.0 13.0 n 0.0 57 55 229 P No n/a 30/04/13 n/a 43 (45) Mercer & Hole 12.5 12.5 0.2 737 658 17 P No n/a 30/09/13 n/a 44 (41) Shipleys 12.4 13.6 -8.8 827 850 15 LLP Yes SRG 30/04/13 2008 45 (46) Barnes Roffe 12.0 12.3 -2.4 666 646 18 LLP Yes HW Leicester 30/06/13 2009 46 (51) Hillier Hopkins 11.9 10.8 10.5 595 489 20 LLP No Price Bailey 31/03/13 2008 47 (49) James Cowper 11.8 10.9 8.3 908 779 13 LLP Yes Monahans 30/04/13 2012 48 (-) Moore & Smalley 11.6 11.3 2.7 644 n/a 18 LLP Yes n/a 31/03/13 2007 49 (54) Barber Harrison & Platt 11.2 10.0 12.0 659 667 17 P No n/a 31/12/13 n/a 50 (50) Silver Levene 11.1 10.7 4.0 655 713 17 LLP Yes Pritchard Fellows & Co 31/05/13 2011 51 (48) Henderson Loggie 11.0 11.3 -2.2 524 489 21 P No n/a 30/11/12 n/a 52 (47) Scott-Moncrieff 11.0 11.3 -2.7 786 753 14 P No n/a 01/04/13 n/a 53 (55) Forrester Boyd 10.8 9.7 11.3 771 746 14 P No n/a 31/03/13 n/a 54 (57) SRLV 10.0 9.2 9.0 770 1,020 13 P No n/a 30/06/13 n/a 55 (53) Beever and Struthers 10.0 10.3 -2.9 455 448 22 P No n/a 30/09/13 n/a
www.accountancylive.com accountancy february 2014 briefing top 75 firms survey n
Fee/partnerFee/partner ratio ratio Annual accounts Auditor tenure Fee income Fee income Fee income% change2013 £000s2012 £000s Y 2013 £m 2012 £m Partners ear end Rank Firm Status Auditor
56 (53) Simmons Gainsford 9.9 10.1 -1.8 658 718 15 LLP Yes Sopher & Co 31/03/13 2005 57 (56) Rothman Pantall 9.7 9.6 1.0 485 480 20 LLP Yes Mazars 31/03/13 2009 58 (59) Dains 9.4 8.3 12.7 519 415 18 LLP Yes Price Bailey 31/03/13 2007 59 (-) Lubbock Fine 9.3 9.1 1.5 773 n/a 12 P No n/a 30/11/12 n/a 60 (-) Spofforths 9.3 9.0 3.2 544 n/a 17 LLP Yes Price Bailey 31/12/12 2011 61 (-) Scruton Bland13 8.9 8.8 1.1 809 n/a 11 P No n/a 31/03/13 n/a 62 (-) Carter Backer Winter 8.6 7.7 11.7 614 550 14 LLP Yes Rickard Keen 31/03/13 2010 63 (-) Berg Kaprow Lewis 8.3 7.7 7.8 692 n/a 12 LLP Yes Leslie Woolfson & Co 31/03/13 2003 64 (-) Cowgill Holloway 8.3 8.0 3.8 755 667 11 LLP Yes Champion & Co 31/05/13 2010 65 (-) Gerald Edelman 8.3 7.9 5.5 692 n/a 12 P No n/a 31/03/13 n/a 66 (60) RGL Forensics 8.3 8.2 1.2 1,383 1,367 6 LLP Yes CBHC 31/03/13 2012 67 (-) French Duncan 8.0 8.0 n 0.0 364 400 22 LLP Yes Parkhill Mackie & Co 30/04/13 2007 68 (-) Alliotts 7.8 7.4 5.4 600 529 13 P No n/a 30/06/13 n/a 69 (-) Brebners 7.6 8.1 -5.8 475 n/a 16 P No n/a 05/04/13 n/a 70 (-) Whittingham Riddell 7.0 6.9 1.4 583 n/a 12 LLP Yes Garratts 31/03/13 2004 71 (-) Chiene + Tait 6.0 5.5 9.1 667 n/a 9 P No n/a 30/09/13 n/a 72 (-) Jeffreys Henry 5.6 5.3 5.7 622 n/a 9 LLP Yes n/a 30/04/13 n/a 73 (-) Bird Luckin 5.1 4.7 8.1 461 426 11 Ltd No n/a 30/09/13 n/a 15 74 (-) Harris Lipman 4.8 5.1 -6.9 679 567 7 LLP No n/a 31/03/13 n/a 75 (-) Wright Vigar 4.0 3.5 13.0 572 506 7 Ltd Yes n/a 31/03/13 n/a Total 11,483.3 11,026.2 4.1 827* 714* 6,104
top 75 firms Talent: partners and staff levels 2013 (2012)
Total staff ratioF £000see/partner F ee income£m Partners partners Female Rank Firm Offices
2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 1 (1) PwC 840 872 3,201 3,006 130 127 16,580 16,700 2,689.0 2,621.0 34 2 (2) Deloitte1 983 991 2,558 2,350 143 140 13,648 13,754 2,515.0 2,329.0 24 3 (3) KPMG2 583 617 3,111 2,927 87 91 10,752 11,612 1,814.0 1,806.0 22 4 (4) EY 565 549 3,046 2,971 113 93 13,688 10,500 1,721.0 1,631.0 23 5 (5) Grant Thornton 206 202 2,287 2,065 28 26 4,028 3,665 471.2 417.1 28 6 (9) Baker Tilly3 316 229 1,066 1,594 n/a 66 3,990 4,405 337.0 365.0 64 7 (6) BDO4 209 196 1,493 1,444 23 23 2,503 2,337 312.0 283.0 25 8 (8) Smith & Williamson5 261 254 712 705 52 48 1,193 1,227 185.8 179.1 12 9 (10) Moore Stephens 158 152 834 894 26 22 947 1,348 131.7 135.9 35 10 (11) Mazars6 108 115 1,115 1,000 14 11 1,340 1,200 120.4 115.0 18 11 (13) Haines Watts Group7 115 117 529 496 10 12 771 789 60.8 58.0 53 12 (14) Crowe Clark Whitehill 72 72 843 824 11 12 573 564 60.7 59.3 9 13 (16) Saffery Champness 62 59 949 951 13 14 497 470 58.9 56.1 10 14 (15) Begbies Traynor Group8 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 11 501 462 51.1 57.7 34 15 (17) UHY Hacker Young9 80 83 604 588 14 13 654 649 48.3 48.8 23 16 (18) Kingston Smith10 59 62 686 656 13 13 401 407 40.5 40.7 6 17 (19) MHA MacIntyre Hudson 66 42 595 838 9 9 473 496 39.3 35.2 13 18 (21) Johnston Carmichael 53 45 630 658 4 3 500 440 33.4 29.6 13 19 (20) Wilkins Kennedy 62 59 507 512 8 8 421 414 31.5 30.2 13 20 (22) Chantrey Vellacott DFK 42 44 726 649 5 7 303 303 30.5 28.6 9 21 (23) Menzies 34 34 891 839 2 2 306 314 30.3 28.5 6 22 (24) Buzzacott 26 25 1,072 1,017 4 3 275 233 27.9 25.4 1 23 (25) Francis Clark 47 44 549 502 5 5 394 384 25.8 22.1 7 24 (26) TaxAssist Accountants11 188 183 130 119 35 39 666 676 24.5 21.8 237 25 (-) HW Fisher & Company 29 n/a 817 n/a 1 n/a 193 n/a 23.7 23.4 2 26 (27) FRP Advisory 37 28 581 779 0 0 185 149 21.5 21.8 12 27 (30) Frank Hirth 24 17 888 1,116 9 6 198 172 21.3 19.0 2
28 (29) Price Bailey 22 22 936 877 1 0 260 280 20.6 19.3 7 16
www.accountancylive.com n top 75 firms survey briefing february 2014 accountancy
top 75 firms Talent: partners and staff levels 2013 (2012) cont’d
Total staff ratioF £000see/partner F ee income£m Partners partners Female Rank Firm Offices
2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 29 (28) Reeves & Co 40 39 500 521 7 8 273 260 20.0 20.3 4 30 (32) SJD Accountancy 1 1 - 17,600 0 0 160 170 19.0 17.6 10 31 (31) Armstrong Watson 33 27 570 670 4 4 371 342 18.8 18.1 14 32 (33) Haysmacintyre 27 25 678 696 7 6 160 160 18.3 17.4 1 33 (35) Duncan & Toplis 28 27 636 633 1 1 316 292 17.8 17.1 10 34 (34) Hazlewoods 19 19 916 900 2 2 216 198 17.4 17.1 5 35 (36) Streets12 20 20 845 845 3 3 109 109 16.9 16.9 10 36 (40) Anderson Anderson & Brown 12 12 1,392 1,192 3 3 195 168 16.7 14.3 1 37 (43) Bishop Fleming 25 25 632 528 3 3 245 267 15.8 13.2 7 38 (37) PKF Littlejohn 29 31 545 523 5 5 152 127 15.8 16.2 1 39 (39) Lovewell Blake 26 26 604 596 2 2 228 230 15.7 15.5 6 40 (38) Cooper Parry 22 22 708 718 1 1 189 170 15.6 15.8 4 41 (42) Larking Gowen 20 20 685 675 2 2 242 245 13.7 13.5 9 42 (44) AIMS 229 238 57 55 18 n/a n/a n/a 13.0 13.0 224 43 (45) Mercer & Hole 17 19 737 658 6 6 137 130 12.5 12.5 3 16 44 (41) Shipleys 15 16 827 850 2 2 87 94 12.4 13.6 2 45 (46) Barnes Roffe 18 19 666 646 2 1 110 109 12.0 12.3 3 46 (51) Hillier Hopkins 20 22 595 489 1 2 123 105 11.9 10.8 4 47 (49) James Cowper 13 14 908 779 3 3 153 144 11.8 10.9 6 48 (-) Moore & Smalley 18 n/a 644 n/a 6 n/a 230 n/a 11.6 11.3 5 49 (54) Barber Harrison & Platt 17 15 659 667 4 3 217 186 11.2 10.0 5 50 (50) Silver Levene 17 15 655 713 1 1 95 90 11.1 10.7 1 51 (48) Henderson Loggie 21 23 524 489 6 6 170 189 11.0 11.3 4 52 (47) Scott-Moncrieff 14 15 786 753 2 2 151 165 11.0 11.3 3 53 (55) Forrester Boyd 14 13 771 746 0 0 183 164 10.8 9.7 5 54 (57) SRLV 13 9 770 1,020 0 0 110 90 10.0 9.2 1 55 (53) Beever and Struthers 22 23 455 448 5 5 176 139 10.0 10.3 3 56 (53) Simmons Gainsford 15 14 658 718 1 1 85 81 9.9 10.1 2 57 (56) Rothman Pantall 20 20 485 480 2 2 140 151 9.7 9.6 12 58 (59) Dains 18 20 519 415 3 3 131 127 9.4 8.3 6 59 (-) Lubbock Fine 12 n/a 773 n/a 0 n/a 75 n/a 9.3 9.1 1 60 (-) Spofforths 17 n/a 544 n/a 4 n/a 174 n/a 9.3 9.0 5 61 (-) Scruton Bland13 11 n/a 809 n/a 3 n/a 145 n/a 8.9 8.8 - 62 (-) Carter Backer Winter 14 14 614 500 0 0 89 80 8.6 7.7 1 63 (-) Berg Kaprow Lewis 12 n/a 692 n/a 2 n/a 91 n/a 8.3 7.7 1 64 (-) Cowgill Holloway 11 12 755 667 1 2 108 107 8.3 8.0 3 65 (-) Gerald Edelman 12 n/a 692 n/a 0 n/a 88 n/a 8.3 7.9 3 66 (60) RGL Forensics 6 6 1,383 1,367 1 1 55 51 8.3 8.2 2 67 (-) French Duncan 22 20 364 400 5 4 165 140 8.0 8.0 6 68 (-) Alliotts 13 14 600 529 1 1 70 n/a 7.8 7.4 2 69 (-) Brebners 16 n/a 475 n/a 2 n/a 83 n/a 7.6 8.1 2 70 (-) Whittingham Riddell 12 n/a 583 n/a 1 n/a 165 n/a 7.0 6.9 3 71 (-) Chiene + Tait 9 n/a 667 n/a 2 n/a 100 n/a 6.0 5.5 2 72 (-) Jeffreys Henry 9 n/a 622 n/a 0 n/a 45 n/a 5.6 5.3 1 73 (-) Bird Luckin 11 11 461 426 4 5 70 60 5.1 4.7 1 74 (-) Harris Lipman 7 9 679 567 1 1 44 45 4.8 5.1 2 75 (-) Wright Vigar 7 7 572 506 1 1 78 72 4.0 3.5 6 Total 6,104 5,916 827* 714* 869 881 83,039 79,207 11,483.3 11,026.2 1,154
Notes 1 Includes £209m revenue for Switerland 5 Smith & Williamson Holdings Limited is the and £1.5m wealth and pensions fees 2 Corporate finance includes transactions overall holding business 11 Each TaxAssist franchisee operates as a sole and insolvency, consulting includes all 6 Audit includes corporate finance and trader, part of partnership or limited company. corporate finance consulting. Consulting includes insolvencies TaxAssist Direct (franchisor) publishes accounts 3 Figures combine Baker Tilly with RSM Tenon. and forensic accounting 12 Firm made up of legal entities, limited and Baker Tilly fee income was £167m (31/3/13), 7 Some offices are not LLPs unlimited companies RSM Tenon fee income was £170m ( 30/6/13) 8 Figures taken from annual report LLP, limited liability partnership; P, partnership; 4 Figures supplied as at year end 05/07/2013 but 9 Group of independent firms with a F, franchise: N, network LLP/company pre- are unaudited. Figures are 9 months BDO plus shared brand acquisition Unlisted plc three months’ combined firm 10 Consulting includes £2.6m insolvency * Average partner ratio
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