KPMG International has announced strong annual aggregated revenues for its firms globally of $35 billion for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022 (FY22), an increase of 14%.

The aggregate revenue of KPMG member firms in the Middle East, South Asia, and Caspian (Mesac) grew by 18.3% in local currency terms for FY22, more than doubling the growth rate achieved in the previous financial year. In a new milestone, the talent pool within the Mesac region exceeded 10,000 people for the first time. Particularly strong growth was achieved in Advisory where revenue grew by nearly 30% over the previous year.

Amidst continued economic and geopolitical uncertainty, robust numbers and consistent growth were achieved across all functions. Advisory achieved the largest growth increase, up 19% on FY21 across KPMG firms globally. Growth was driven by the success of Transaction and Deal Advisory services, as well as continued demand for innovative technologies and advanced cyber security solutions. This is also a significant indicator of the appetite within the marketplace in relation to strategic M&As, and the ongoing investment in technology-based solutions by companies within the global marketplace.

Tax & Legal Services experienced a 10% growth while Audit grew by approximately 8%, benefiting from a combination of the investments made in technology and KPMG firms’ globally connected local knowledge.

Innovative solutions

Jamal Fakhro, Managing Partner of KPMG in Bahrain, said: “KPMG firms’ financial performance is a testament of our ongoing commitment to providing innovative solutions to our critical business challenges and risks within the marketplace. Collaboration also played a key role in our success story over the past few years. Our professionals across borders and disciplines had to collaborate more closely than ever to help businesses stay on top of market trends while remaining competitive.

“Within the local marketplace, we are also witnessing cautious optimism amongst business leaders, who are more strategic in terms of their investments, but are also building their awareness and understanding of the risk radar that might impact the industry they are operating within. As a firm, we continue to invest in building our capabilities across key service and solution areas that will serve our clients and the kingdom well. We remain committed to our priorities including cybersecurity, digital transformation, enterprise risk management, audit quality, tax and corporate services, people & change/ HR advisory services and Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) services.”

Mesac region expansion

KPMG’s regional capabilities expanded by welcoming its member firms within the Caspian cluster (6 countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan) into the Mesac region. Together with these, the Mesac region now covers KPMG member firm presence in 20 countries and territories.

Talent

The KPMG global organisation’s worldwide headcount continues to grow, increasing by 12.4% in FY22, bolstered by more than 29,000 net new roles created. On this Fakhro stated: “This growth has led to the addition of specialists and subject-matter experts at all levels, helping to enable high-quality and multi-disciplinary services designed to solve the complex problems of modern organisations around the world. Our multi-disciplinary approach means that we are positioned well to draw on our global, regional, and national network of resourceful experts across Audit, Tax and Advisory to support our clients’ professional needs.”

Technology

The past year has seen the demand for technology-enabled transformation rise dramatically, reshaping many businesses, including KPMG’s. KPMG continues to make significant investments across the organisation in digital transformation, including the appointment of Lisa Heneghan, as its new Global Chief Digital Officer. Over the last year, KPMG professionals have helped clients transform their business model through the power of its alliance-driven digital solutions with globally recognised technology organisations.

Manav Prakash, Partner, Advisory Services. KPMG in Bahrain stated: “Many organisations across the kingdom are making significant investments in their digital transformation journey. We have been working with our clients to adapt their organisation’s strategy and operating model to capture opportunities enabled by digital technologies and create value in entirely new ways, whilst protecting them against potential cyber threats as they embark on their transformation journey.

“We are also leveraging our global alliance-driven solutions to be able to support our clients enhance their workforce productivity, business systems and processes, and helping them to enhance their effectiveness and responsiveness to the rapidly changing business environment, by adapting the most suitable technology-based solutions including lo-code and other traditional options.”

Environmental, social and governance

ESG remains the watermark running through the organisation and steady financial growth has underpinned investment in industry-leading global environmental, social and governance (ESG) solutions – in line with the $1.5 billion commitment KPMG made in 2021.

Jeyapriya Partiban, Partner and Head of Advisory Services, KPMG in Bahrain stated: “ESG has been a significant priority for KPMG at a global and national level for over a decade and, we have been providing Sustainability related Advisory Services for clients in the kingdom and across the region for over 10 years. As a priority, we are committed to raising awareness and understanding within the marketplace and within our own firm in relation ESG. To date, almost 100,000 KPMG professionals globally have successfully completed their specialist ESG 101 training as a part of our lifelong learning initiative.

“With the growing priority around ESG risks, we focus on delivering multi-disciplinary client solutions to optimise challenges and opportunities presented by the ESG agenda, with the support of our resident professional team in Bahrain.”