KPMG global has reported revenues of $24.82bn in the year to 30 September 2014, up 6.3% in local currency terms and up by just under 5.9% in US dollar terms.

This year performance breaks KPMG’s sluggish global growth experienced in the past two years where the firm grew 2% in 2013 and 1% in 2012.

Audit revenues were up 3.8% with the firm earning $10.46bn in fee income, up from 1.2% growth in the prior year.

"This growth was achieved against the backdrop of a global market for audit and assurance services which has become increasingly competitive and challenging. We continue to see intense price pressure on audit engagements and the introduction of European Union audit reform is driving an unprecedented level of audit tenders," the global network said.

"The $600m multi-year investment to continuously enhance the quality of the KPMG audit, was maintained and extended, and we were proud to win a number of significant audit appointments including: American Airlines, Mapfre, ING, Panasonic, Renault and Vale," KPMG global chairman John Veihmeyer said.

Tax revenues grew 6.1% to $5.27bn, up from 4.2% in FY13, driven by an increased demand for tax compliance and tax advisory services according to the firm.

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Advisory brought in $9.09bn in fee income, up 10.4%. The advisory growth was driven by demand and strengthened capabilities in management consulting, risk consulting services and transactions and restructuring.

Regionally, Americas revenues were up by 10% to $8.51bn, Asia-Pacific 3.8% to $3.86bn and EMA (including India) was up 4.7% to $12.45bn earned in fees.

This year marked a change in leadership for KPMG as in February global chairman Michael Andrew retired after being diagnosed with "a serious medical condition". He was succeeded by John Veihmeyer, the chairman and chief executive of KPMG US.

Investment in advisory
In line with trends observed in the past couple of years, KPMG continued its investment in advisory solution to help boost its offering. Only a few weeks ago the network’s UK firm announced a strategic alliance with McLaren, which will apply McLaren Applied Technologies’ (‘MAT’) predictive analytics and technology to KPMG’s audit and advisory services, and taken an equity stake in Bottlenose, a real time trend intelligence company.

KPMG also completed deals with SAFIRA, provider of IBM’s Business Process Management services; Cynergy, a digital and mobile technologies company; Qubera, a cyber-security firm and Rothstein Kass, a US-based provider of professional services to hedge funds and the alternative investment industry.

The network also increased its workforce to 162,000 staff, up 4.5%. The network said it hired 18,000 new graduates globally.

This performance puts KPMG in line with the rest of the Big Four, which all reported similar growth rates for FY14. Market leading Deloitte reported 5.7% global growth to $34.2bn, followed by PwC with 6% growth to $34bn and EY with 6.8% growth to $27.4bn.

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