Midlands accountancy firm reveals seventh consecutive year of growth

Published by

Nicky Godding

Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP has posted revenues of £578m, a 25 per cent increase on the previous year, it has announced.

Marking a seventh consecutive year of growth, this headline figure represents 15 per cent organic growth, as well as a 10 per cent boost following the firm’s successful merger with Moore Stephens LLP in February.

Profits at BDO – which has offices in Birmingham and Nottingham – increased by 26 per cent to £134m. Average distributable profit per partner (PEP) increased 8.7 per cent to £602,000.

Investment in people has been a key priority for the business. This year, BDO promoted 13 partners internally and appointed 14 new partners from other firms. A further 1,500 promotions were made across the business, representing almost a third of BDO’s UK workforce, while 390 trainees were recruited – including a record cohort of school leavers.

Richard Rose, Lead Partner for the Midlands at BDO said: “We have had a landmark year, with continued organic growth being enhanced by our merger with Moore Stephens LLP.

“I’m proud we’ve promoted nearly a third of our people this year and welcomed a record number of school leavers.

“Our strong financial performance in the UK, as well as our membership of a successful global network, has also enabled us to make further investments in audit processing tools, data analytics and robotics. This enables our people to spend their time advising clients on more specialised and complex matters.”

All three of the firm’s service lines - audit, tax and advisory – witnessed a strong performance this year.

The audit business posted revenues of £200m, up 25 per cent on the previous year, having extended its lead as the top auditor for AIM-listed companies. BDO also became the third biggest auditor, by number, of listed entities in the UK following its completion of the merger in February and a number of significant audit wins throughout the year.

For a second consecutive year, BDO achieved the highest score in the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) Audit Quality Review of the major accountancy firms. The firm says it will invest £20m in its UK audit practice over the coming year. This will include a £4m injection into professional training programmes, and a further £4m on developing data analytics and audit processing software.

The tax business reported growth of 20 per cent, generating revenues of £168m, with tax compliance and risk advisory services in increasingly high demand. Private tax advice was another key part of this growth.

BDO’s advisory revenues grew by 30 per cent to £210m, fuelled by a buoyant private equity community.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.