EY set to record global revenues of $45.4bn

EY has told staff it expects to report record global revenues of $45.4bn for its most recent financial year as attempts to win senior leaders’ backing for a break-up of its audit and advisory businesses drag on.

The Big Four accounting firm disclosed the figure on a call for its 312,000 staff globally, hosted by chair and chief executive Carmine Di Sibio.

The sales number is a 13.5 per cent increase on the $40bn of revenues reported by EY for its previous financial year, which ended in June 2021. Revenues increased 16.4 per cent in local currency terms, said people at the firm. EY usually reports its global revenues in September.

The jump follows booming demand for professional services firms. All of the Big Four firms — which also include Deloitte, KPMG and PwC — reported increased sales last year.

PwC boss Bob Moritz told the Financial Times this month that he expected his firm to report record revenues of about $50bn for the 12 months to June 2022. The firms do not disclose their global profits.

Staff were given little new information about the proposed break-up of EY on Thursday’s call, according to people at the firm. The separation would be the biggest shake-up of a Big Four group in two decades.

EY is considering spinning off and publicly listing its advisory business, which offers companies consultancy, deals advice and managed services, to free it from conflicts of interest that restrict it from winning work with its audit clients.

A split would deliver multimillion-dollar windfalls for thousands of partners if it goes ahead but it must first win the backing of the firm’s global leadership before being put to a vote in each of the national member firms that make up the EY network.

Di Sibio told the FT this month that he hoped to have a decision “in the next couple of weeks or so” on whether EY’s global leadership intended to proceed to country-by-country votes. But others at the firm said that the timeline for a decision on whether to proceed appeared to be slipping.

EY declined to comment.