BDO total fee income has increased 13% in the year to 30 September 2015, up to $7.3bn, following the completion of 19 successful mergers.

BDO’s advisory service line contributed 20.6% ($1,503.8m) of total revenues, down from $1,537m in the previous financial year.

Audit and accounting made up 59% to $4,306.9m, which is a small decrease in comparison to last year’s result. However, given that services within this line have been altered in the past twelve months, BDO has adjusted the fee split for audit and accounting in FY14 to represent 59% ($4,148m) of its total revenue rather than the 57.5% ($4036.5m) figure this magazine reported.

BDO’s tax line represented 20.4% of total fees at $1,490m which is a small decrease compared with $1,446m in 2014.

BDO chief executive officer Martin Van Roekel told International Accounting Bulletin: "We are pleased to see a 13% growth resulting from sustained organic growth, as well as mergers and acquisitions, which is part of our expansion strategy."

Looking at the coming year, Van Roekel expects BDO’s tax and advisory service lines across the world to grow.

In FY15, however, BDO merged with 19 firms around the globe. While an impressive number it is actually 9 less than the year previously, when 28 firm mergers were completed.

"It is always important to look at the quality of deals and not quantity," Van Roekel continued.

"We have an efficient infrastructure, proven global capabilities and the momentum and power to continue at the forefront of the ongoing consolidation of the mid-tier."

However van Roekel says his network carried out larger sized M&As on average in comparison to FY14 year, with a bandwidth for deals hitting anything between $1m and $100m for FY15.

"It is a large bandwidth," Van Roekel admits. "But it depends on what is available in the market and if there is a comfortable cultural fit to ensure mergers go well. But you can’t predict in advance the size and scale of your mergers, or the number of deals. However, if you keep a continuous focus on M&A then you will be successful."

With mergers in France, Canada and Italy, and the strengthening of its presence in Greece and Kazakhstan, BDO is now represented in 154 territories up from 151 in 2014.

A recent deal for the network has been the merge with BDO Austria in September 2015, which adds revenues of €8m and a further 10 partners and 55 professional staff.

In the USA, BDO has surpassed the billion dollar mark for the first time with a 29% increase in revenues up to $1.1bn for FY15, from $866m in FY14.

Growth in the USA was fuelled by four significant mergers, including UHY in Texas, SS&G in Ohio and Chicago, Stone Carlie in St Louis and Cross, Fernandez & Riley. In all, thirteen expansions in the past three years allowed the USA firm to add nearly 2,000 staff members.

"Our USA firm has done extremely well," Van Roekel said. "But it is interesting to see that we have done further deals in Canada with PKF firms, and continue to complete mergers with firms from other networks."

BDO Canada merged with two PKF firms, one in Ontario and the other Montreal. This has added $21m in revenue for FY15, while strengthening the network’s French-Canadian practice.

In Italy, BDO joined forces with Mazars to create combined revenue for FY15 of €65m, making them the country’s mid-tier leader in Italy.

At a wider EMEA level, BDO announce a new member in the West Bank, which already has an office Ramallah and plans to expand into Gaza.

"Our focus in the past years is to build the absolute leader of mid tier accounting firms. By doing so, we will create a firm that is able to offer the same level of quality typically associated with larger networks, while keeping aspects of smaller firms," Van Roekel said.

"It is expected that we will continue our growth path," Van Roekel predicted. "We hope to expand into Iran. I am optimistic that can be achieved in 2016, but of course political decisions will determine whether or not this is possible."