Ernst & Young, Australia (“EY Australia”) has announced revenue has grown to a record $2.97 billion – a 13 per cent increase on the previous year.
David Larocca, EY Regional Managing Partner and CEO Oceania said: “Revenue growth of 13 per cent is an outstanding achievement given the complexity of the challenges we have faced as a firm and an industry in the past 12 months. The result is a testament to the innovative thinking and dedication of our people, who continue to show their commitment to exceptional client service.”
“We’re extremely proud of what we’ve achieved in FY23 and we’re immensely grateful to everyone at EY who helped to achieve it.”
In the past financial year, EY Australia appointed 81 new partners, including 50 promotions to partner and 31 new partners hired. A record 46 per cent of newly promoted partners are women, an increase of six per cent on the previous year. EY Australia also appointed 37 associate partners, 30 per cent of whom are women.
EY Australia’s strategic acquisition strategy has bolstered its tech and transformation offering. EY Australia completed the acquisition of Bridge Business Consulting Pty Ltd, a Sydney-based data and analytics firm, in FY23. The recent acquisition of strategic design, product development and digital solutions consulting studio Future Friendly Team Pty Ltd also resulted from strong connections built in FY23.
David Larocca said EY Australia’s focus this year has been on positioning the business for long-term success, investing in talented people and deep-diving into culture to continue building a diverse, safe and respectful workplace.
“We have created more than 300 new jobs across Australia in the past financial year as we grow to meet the strong demand for our multi-disciplinary services. We invested more than $45m in our talent agenda in FY23 (including in learning and development, talent professionals and work culture improvements), a more than 30 per cent increase on the previous year. We have also focused on striking the right balance between firm profits (up 5.4% across the EY Oceania firms), continuing to invest in our business and appropriately rewarding all our people.
“We’re also taking clear further steps to improve our culture and the experience of our people. We commissioned an independent review and report into our culture by Elizabeth Broderick and Co in FY23, which we have since released publicly alongside a commitment to implement the report’s 27 recommendations in full.
“We remain committed to providing greater transparency around our culture and the experiences of our people. We look forward to sharing our progress towards a more respectful and inclusive workplace in our Value Realised Scorecard for FY23, which will be released later this year.”
Growth has been strong across EY Australia’s business, with all service lines delivering an increase in the strong growth achieved in FY22. The Strategy and Transactions practice achieved 16 per cent year on year growth, Consulting 13 per cent, Tax and Law 12 percent and Assurance 11 per cent.
EY Australia continues to demonstrate sustained market leadership in audit quality, demonstrated by ASIC’s external reviews as well as our robust internal oversights continue to underscore our dedication to quality audit practices and our commitment to providing confidence in capital markets in an increasingly uncertain economy.
Growth across our Tax services has been driven by our commitment to identify sustainable solutions to our clients’ complex tax compliance requirements.
Australia continues to grapple with workforce shortages following the COVID-19 pandemic, and businesses have turned to EY Australia’s People Advisory Services to help them unlock new and better ways of working.
Sustained transaction activity across corporate, private equity and government sectors remains a key driver of growth for EY Australia’s Strategy and Transactions practice, as we help clients navigate increasingly complex and uncertain markets.
Strong growth in Consulting reflects the value clients see in EY Australia’s unique approach to business transformation. In FY23, we launched new services harnessing innovative technologies, including the EY Space Tech Lab.
“We continued to make progress towards our 2025 diversity and sustainability targets in FY23, highlighted in EY Oceania’s 2022 Value Realised Scorecard. The percentage of female partners increased to 30 per cent and the percentage of women across the organisation remained steady at 50 per cent. This demonstrates we have made good progress but there is also more to do,” Mr Larocca said.
“We remain on track to reach our target of net zero by 2025, and our EY Net Zero Centre is helping clients, including some of the region’s largest emitters, take meaningful steps to tackle decarbonisation.
“The positive results over the past 12 months have been delivered amid a difficult and challenging time for our industry. Earlier this year, we made the global decision not to proceed with Project Everest, our proactive, bold plan to separate the business into two global multi-disciplinary firms. At the same time, the practices, ethics and regulation of the industry are, understandably and rightly, being closely scrutinised by State and Federal Parliaments.
“EY Australia remains committed to engaging in a considered, consultative and evidence-based dialogue with our stakeholders to shape the industry for the better. By doing this and by focusing on our people and best-in-class service for our clients, I have every confidence that the outstanding performances of recent years will continue.”
