Country for PR: United Kingdom
Contributor: PR Newswire Europe
Tuesday, October 01 2019 - 09:01
AsiaNet
PwC Global Revenues Up 7%[1] to US$42.4 Billion
LONDON, Oct. 1, 2019 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

- Focus on our purpose drives good revenue growth in all major markets and 
areas of business

- 25,000 new jobs created, increasing the workforce to 276,000

- US$3bn investment in upskilling PwC people, and developing and sharing 
technologies to support clients and communities 

- Commitment to tackle the skills gap and reach millions of people by working 
with governments, businesses and NGOs 

- Progress on audit quality with continued investment to improve quality in all 
businesses

- Major investment in technology - on track to be one of the most cloud-enabled 
organisations in the world 

For the 12 months ending 30 June 2019, PwC firms around the world had gross 
revenues of US$42.4 billion – up 7% in local currency and 4% in US dollars. 
Revenues grew across all lines of business and major markets, boosted by the 
power of the PwC brand and continued significant investments in quality, 
technology and people. 

As our clients face increasing challenges and opportunities driven by 
technological advances, stakeholder expectations and other changes, they 
require us to work together across the broad range of our operations helping 
them to deal with issues such as cyber security, trust, regulation and 
strategic workforce planning. And as a result, our business is growing rapidly 
in these areas to meet increased client demand.

"Over the past year, we've continued to focus on delivering value to our 
stakeholders, working hard to build trust and help our clients solve their most 
complex problems. As a result, PwC businesses grew in all major markets around 
the world. Our strong growth in revenues has enabled us to continue to invest 
in our businesses and our people. Investments in technology are making our 
services more relevant and enhancing the quality of our work.

"PwC firms now employ 276,000 people worldwide and are investing heavily in 
learning and development to ensure our people can build rewarding careers and 
are prepared for the future world of work," said Bob Moritz, PwC's Global 
Chairman.

A good performance across the world

In the Americas, revenues were up by 5% compared with 4% the prior year, with a 
particularly strong performance from operations in the United States and 
Canada, offset by some challenging economic conditions in Brazil where revenue 
rose by 2%. Growth in Western Europe was up by 7%. In Central and Eastern 
Europe, revenues continued to grow strongly -  up 10% -  marking the fourth 
consecutive year of double digit growth. 

Revenue growth from the Middle East and Africa was also strong, despite some 
challenging market conditions, increasing by 9%. Across Asia, revenues grew by 
9% while in Australasia and the Pacific, PwC enjoyed another strong year with 
revenues rising by 10%.

Assurance: Despite very mature and highly competitive markets, revenues from 
PwC Assurance operations grew by 5% to US$17.4 billion. With 115,000 people 
across the world, we continue to manage the challenges of mandatory firm 
rotation in many markets and attract new clients with the introduction of 
cutting-edge solutions and emerging technologies for the audit. In addition, 
demand for our broader assurance services continues in established areas such 
as internal audit, risk and compliance, as well as emerging areas such as data 
and analytics, crypto currency and blockchain.

Advisory: PwC Advisory operations grew by 10% to US$14.4 billion. We have in 
recent years established a strong reputation for delivering value for clients 
from strategy to execution. This is driving high demand, particularly relating 
to deals, value creation and business transformation. PwC Advisory operations 
now employ 68,000 people. We engage a broad range of talents, bringing not only 
the more traditional management or strategy consultants, but also data 
scientists, AI experts, systems engineers, designers, communications experts 
and others, to address our clients' most pressing business issues and 
opportunities. We also have alliances with many of the world's leading 
technology companies to create cutting-edge solutions for clients.

Tax & Legal Services: PwC Tax & Legal revenues grew by 6% to US$10.7 billion, 
driven by continued complexity and change in many local tax systems, as well as 
the state of flux in the global regulatory and economic landscape. The 55,000 
professionals in our Tax and Legal Services practices use the latest 
technologies to help businesses navigate complexity and risk, build their 
people networks, and solve legal challenges while meeting their tax and other 
responsibilities. Demand was particularly high for People & Organisation 
services, Legal services, and Tax Reporting & Strategy services. 

New world. New skills.

It's become increasingly apparent that one of the world's most pressing 
challenges – and one faced by business – is the growing mismatch between the 
skills people have and those needed for the digital world. There is an urgent 
need for organisations, governments and educators to come together to fix this 
growing problem and business has an important role to play. Over the next four 
years, we are committing $3bn in upskilling – primarily in training our people 
but also in developing and sharing technologies to support clients and 
communities. 

"The skills gap is an issue that goes to the heart of our purpose and we have 
the scale and experience to make a measurable impact. That's why today we are 
launching 'New world, New skills' -  a commitment to tackle this important 
problem for our people, our clients and the communities in which we operate," 
said Bob Moritz.

The programme focuses on four key areas:  

- Upskilling all of PwC's 276,000 people. We will roll out different programmes 
that meet their particular needs, from skills academies to digital fitness apps 
to leadership development. A proportion of our workforce will develop 
specialist skills in areas including data analytics, robotics process 
automation and artificial intelligence for use in their work. For others, it's 
about understanding the potential of new technologies so they can advise 
clients, communities, and other stakeholders. 

- We are also advising our clients on the challenges posed by rapid 
technological change and automation. This includes identifying skills gaps and 
mismatches against likely future needs, workforce planning, upskilling 
programmes and cultural change. 

- We will work with governments and institutions to reach a much broader group 
of people. For example, PwC in Luxembourg helped develop the Luxembourg Skills 
Bridge which brings together trade unions, associations and businesses to build 
digital industries and develop digital skills, including among those 
populations most 'at risk'. 

- We will help millions of people improve their skills and knowledge for the 
digital world by making upskilling a focus of our not-for-profit initiatives. 
This includes working with students and teachers, which will help ensure 
opportunities are more evenly spread and we reach people who may otherwise be 
left behind. Learn more about PwC's New world. New skills 
[https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/about/global-annual-review-2019/upskilling.html]. 

Striving for the highest quality

The quality of our work is at the heart of our organisation and we invest 
significant and increasing resources in its continuous enhancement across all 
of our businesses. This investment is targeted into many different areas, 
including training (technical, ethical and behavioural), methodologies, adding 
resources in key areas and exploring new ways of delivering our work. We are 
also investing heavily in new technology to drive continuous improvements in 
the quality, capabilities and effectiveness of all of our services. As part of 
our journey to be one of the most cloud enabled organisations in the world, we 
are investing over US$1 billion in solutions and supporting programmes to 
create a connected ecosystem and drive innovation and quality.  

"The quality of our work across the full range of our services is incredibly 
important. While we are proud to have been the first of the global professional 
services networks to have published its internal audit quality inspection 
results, we know we have more to do and are operating with a continuous 
improvement mindset. Both in terms of how we test, measure and enhance quality 
and also in the levels of investment we need to make to ensure our quality is 
as high as possible. We have added more detail in our Global Annual Review on 
audit quality and aim to increase transparency in the future," said Bob Moritz.

The results of our audit quality testing improved in FY19. We know that we have 
more to do and we need to reduce the level of non-compliant audits further. In 
FY19, of the 1,768 audits we reviewed, 94.9% (up from 92.2% in 2018) were 
deemed compliant. Learn more 
[https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/about/global-annual-review-2019/quality.html].

Notes to editors: 

About PwC:  At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve 
important problems. We're a network of firms in 157 countries with over 276,000 
people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax 
services. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at 
www.pwc.com.

PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of 
which is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further 
details.

© 2019 PwC. All rights reserved

To learn more, take a look at PwC's Global Annual Review - 
www.pwc.com/annualreview

People and developing talent: Across the world in FY19, PwC's headcount grew 
10% to 276,005 people and our global presence remains strong with 1,008 offices 
in 742 locations across 157 countries. In FY19, 69,734 people joined PwC firms 
– including 38,053 graduates and school leavers and 26,749 experienced 
professionals. PwC firms around the world admitted 760 new partners on 1 July 
2019. While there is still much to do to achieve gender parity in our partner 
numbers, the representation of female partners has increased from 13% in 2006 
to 21% today.

Impact on society: In FY18, we set an ambitious global target: to invest in the 
future and growth of 15 million people, NGOs and social and micro enterprises 
to help them maximise their potential by 2022. Since FY18, we've reached 8.5 
million beneficiaries.

This progress is thanks to the ongoing efforts and dedication of our people. In 
FY19, over 61,000 PwC people contributed more than 925,000 hours – of which 
more than 676,000 hours were spent sharing their professional skills. This 
year, our volunteers spent more time in their communities than in FY18, with an 
approximate increase of one hour per volunteer. 

To address our environmental impacts, in FY18 we announced a global ambition to 
drive efficiencies, go 100% renewable, and offset 100% air travel emissions. By 
the end of FY19, a large number of our member firms were working towards our 
global ambition. Our environment ambition now covers nearly 90% of our global 
revenues. 

In FY19, we made good progress in reducing the energy consumed in our buildings 
and vehicles, decreasing our Scope 1 (direct emissions from owned and 
controlled buildings and vehicles) and Scope 2 (purchased heat and electricity) 
emissions by 6% and 2% respectively. The proportion of electricity coming from 
renewable sources also increased, from 60% in FY18 to 65% in FY19.

Business travel is a part of our business and, while our headcount has grown, 
we have kept emissions per employee flat. This does mean, however, that 
absolute emissions have increased. We are managing this by exploring how to 
increase our use of online meetings and use less carbon intensive forms of 
travel, such as rail, within the context of stricter travel policies. To 
mitigate the impact of our air travel, we are also now supporting a range of 
high-quality carbon reduction projects.

Aggregated revenues of PwC firms by geographic region (US$ millions)

	                      FY19 at FY19 ex. Rates    FY18 at FY18 ex. Rates 
(restated)    % change    % change at constant ex. rates
Americas	              17,798	                
16,970	                             4.90%	 5.40%
Asia	                      6,103	                
5,675                                7.50%	 9.30%
Australasia and Pacific       1,847	                
1,810	                             2.10%	 9.70%
Central and Eastern Europe    948	                
918                                  3.30%	 10.20%
Middle East and Africa	      1,651	                
1,559	                             5.90%	 8.70%
Western Europe                14,101	                
13,749	                             2.60        7.20%
Revenues	              42,448                    
40,681	                             4.30%	 7.0%[2]

Aggregated revenues of PwC firms by service line (US$ millions)

	         FY19 at FY19  FY18 at FY18 ex.	           % change at constant 
                  ex. Rates    Rates (restated)  % change    ex. rates
Assurance	  17,382       17,048	            2.00%      4.60%
Advisory          14,369       13,314	            7.90%     10.40%
Tax	          10,697       10,319	            3.70%      6.40%
Gross revenues    42,448       40,681	            4.30%      7.00%
Expenses and      -2,538       -2,625	           -3.30%     -0.90%
disbursements on client     
assignments    	
Net revenues      39,910       38,056               4.90%      7.50%

FY19 revenues are the aggregated revenues of all PwC firms and are expressed in 
US dollars at average FY19 exchange rates. FY18 aggregated revenues are shown 
at average FY18 exchange rates. Gross revenues are inclusive of expenses billed 
to clients. Fiscal year ends 30 June.

[1] This 7% growth is based on continuing operations. Revenues from businesses 
sold in FY18 have been excluded from the FY18 numbers which have been restated 
from the figure published in October 2018.

[2] This 7% growth is based on continuing operations. Revenues from businesses 
sold in FY18 have been excluded from the FY18 numbers which have been restated 
from the figure published in October 2018.

Source: PwC
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