Combined global revenues of Praxity participant firms hit a record high of $5.8bn for the year ended 31 December 2018, a year-on-year increase of 12.2%.
This was the twelfth consecutive year of growth for Praxity.
In the IAB World Survey 2019, Praxity was ranked as the number one association by fee income worldwide and in four regions: North America, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific.
Praxity CEO Graeme Gordon noted that while Praxity is an association, he regards Grant Thornton and BDO as its key competitors and finds it useful to benchmark Praxity’s performance against them.
Growth was recorded in all regions with the exception of Latin America. Gordon said: “Economic and political uncertainty continues to plague the region, however much of this drop can be attributed to the inflation of local currencies.”
For the first year, Praxity participants in the US and Canada exceeded $3bn, a year-on-year rise of 11.4%. Revenues from Europe also achieved double-digit growth – to 12.5% – compared to 7.7% in 2017. Asia Pacific continued to grow, with over 17% increase to $828m and there was growth in the Africa region, up more than 9% to $99m.
Audit remained the main revenue stream for Praxity, increasing by 12.5% in 2018. Gordon said: “With Audit methodology changes coming in and clients’ expectations continually evolving, I suspect clients will feel more comfortable in the future using independent firms.
“In part this is due to flexibility, with independent firms more able to tailor their audit and assurance approach to clients’ needs, rather than being forced to adopt a one-size-fits-all offering. This explains our robust results in this service line.”
Praxity participant firms employed 51,983 people in 111 countries, an increase of over 9%. The number of partners increased from 3,682 to 3,911, a rise of 6%.
