PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the leading professional services organisation, today announced that its continuing Middle East practice grew by 17% during FY2010. The growth was strongly associated with an expansion of the advisory offering and is part of PwC's reported aggregate global gross revenues of US$26.6 billion for FY2010, an increase of 1.5% on FY2009.
PwC's global Advisory businesses returned to healthy growth in FY2010 with revenues of US$6.2 billion, up 7.9 percent over the previous 12 months. PwC's consulting businesses grew particularly strongly up 15 percent. Advisory results also reflected an improvement in the economic environment over the course of FY2010, as well as revenues from a number of strategic acquisitions. PwC Advisory is expected to remain a key source of future growth.
On a global scale, revenues for PwC firm's flagship Assurance services held up well, given the economic conditions, at US$13.3 billion, down only very slightly (1.3 per cent) from the previous year. Despite the continued slow economy, demand increased for Assurance services, but the rise in demand was more than offset by ongoing pricing pressure in a fiercely competitive market. PwC's Assurance operations continued to invest in service quality and maintained their status as the largest assurance practice in the world.
Demand for Tax services also improved during the course of the year as the global economy strengthened. Tax revenues, however, ended the year down 2.9 per cent to US$7.1 billion held back by the worldwide slowdown in corporate deals and restructuring activity.
"Our strategy is to become number one in all of the twelve markets within which we operate and our strong financial results are a clear indication that we're well on our way to achieving that goal," commented Warwick Hunt, Middle East Managing Partner, PwC. "We operate as one firm across the Middle East region and have one of the largest, most diverse and experienced group of professional service consultants in the industry. By listening to our clients we seek to understand their needs, and deploy the right people to the right assignment, equipped with the right training and experience. Maintaining this focus will ensure we have another strong year in the region and continue to expand. Furthermore, FY2011 has started strongly and we are already posting growth rates of over twice the rate we achieved in FY10."
PwC globally has also refreshed its branding in order to strengthen, and modernise how it represents its worldwide network to its clients, its people and the communities in which it operates. The new branding includes a simplified logo and underlying the visual elements is what the PwC brand really stands for - how it is viewed by clients, employees and stakeholders.
Fouad Alaeddin, Middle East Managing Partner, Head of Markets, PwC, also commented, "To be successful in the Middle East, organisations needs to interlink their business objectives and initiatives to support the local community. We've been doing this successfully across the region with a number of clients and we will continue to develop our teams, focus on our client relationships and maintain our reputation for being ahead of the curve within our industry."
