KPMG unveils robust FY21 results as it outlines investment for growth

Growth in FY21 was driven by the resurgence of the M&A market, which saw net sales in the firm’s deal advisory practice increase by 31% to £357m.**  Demand from private sector clients for digital transformation services drove a 13% increase in net sales in the consulting practice to £646m.

Jon Holt commented: “We’re going through a period when almost every business has had to take a long hard look in the mirror and rethink its strategy. Faced with inflationary pressures, supply chain issues and the ongoing pandemic, many have decided that now is the time to be more radical, restructure operations and move on-premises systems into the cloud. This dynamic has created a spike in demand for advice, as clients hit the accelerator on digital transformation programmes.

“The low interest rate environment has seen Private Equity players pump cash into the market and this, coupled with the broader operational transformation businesses are going through, has driven a record deal flow. We’re seeing this trend continue in 2022.”

The firm’s audit practice, which holds the leading market share in the FTSE 100, saw net sales increase by 5% to £634m, while its tax and legal division delivered strong growth of 8% with net sales reaching £402m.***

A market leading £100m bonus pool was paid to staff and Partners received an average distribution of £688k.

KPMG also announced the appointment of Chris Hearld as the firm's CFO. Chris is a member of KPMG's Executive Committee and leads the firm's regional business. He will take on the role during March.

Throughout the pandemic KPMG put in place a package of support to safeguard the wellbeing of its people, offering flexible working hours over the summer months and a range of mental health resources, including its BeWell employee assistance helpline and the UnMind app, which are available to all colleagues. 

The package includes a special leave code, which enables colleagues to take unlimited paid time off to care for others during the pandemic. This was used by 2,595 staff who coded 78,746 hours over the last twelve months alone. The firm also rolled out home working kit provision, with c.22.5k items of equipment (desks, chairs and monitors) delivered to staff since the onset of the pandemic.

KPMG invested in its people, promoting 2,710 colleagues, including 56 new partners, recruiting 1,085 graduates and apprentices and making 1,676 experienced hires.  It also built on its work to advance social mobility in the UK, becoming one of the first organisations to publish its socio-economic background pay gaps and set out ambitious targets to increase the number of senior employees from working class backgrounds to 29% by 2030.  Following this, the firm was recognised by the Social Mobility Foundation as a leading social mobility employer in the UK.

The firm supported more than 230,000 young people in its communities through its literacy, numeracy and lifelong learning programmes.  As a founding supporter of National Numeracy Day, KPMG worked with the charity to bring together over 2,800 organisations to boost numeracy skills across the country. Since its inception in 2018, over 190,000 people have taken steps to improve their numeracy as a direct result of the Day.

KPMG also announced a partnership with the National Literacy Trust and the Marcus Rashford Book Club, which will see the firm donate over 60,000 books to support young people in the most disadvantaged areas of the UK.

The firm also concluded its 3-year partnership with the NSPCC, which saw staff raise over £1.5 million for the NSPCC and provide almost £500,000 worth of pro bono work, bringing the total contribution to just under £2 million. KPMG has named Marie Curie as its new charity partner.  The firm aims to raise £1 million over two years for the charity, in addition to also supporting them with volunteering, pro bono and thought leadership.

KPMG continued its commitment to being transparent about its progress towards building a more inclusive, diverse and equitable business. In September it became one of the first UK businesses to publish socio-economic background pay gaps and set a socio-economic background target.

After successfully meeting the majority of its diversity targets, which were set until 2022, the firm analysed and refreshed its targets to drive further change. The new targets aim to see its Partner group be at least 40% female; 20% from an ethnic minority background; 15% have a disability or long-term condition; 6% lesbian, gay, bi; 5% Black Heritage and 29% from a lower socio-economic background by 2030.

The firm delivered improvements in several areas. It increased female partner representation and continued to build a strong pipeline of female talent at all levels of the business. It also decreased its ethnicity, Black Heritage and disability pay gaps, where it reports beyond the statutory requirements.

However, the firm’s gender pay gap and sexual orientation pay gaps increased.  Data shows that the increase in the gender pay gap was driven by external hires, where more females at junior grades and more males at senior grades were recruited. At senior grades, this was largely to fill specific and critical roles during the months of the pandemic, which this reporting period covers, in historically male-dominated sectors such as technology and deal advisory. The increase in the firm’s sexual orientation pay gap was driven by having a lower representation of lesbian, gay and bi colleagues at senior grades, compared to last year.

Jon Holt commented: “I won’t be satisfied until we’ve made further progress on reducing our pay gaps. We’re setting bolder targets on inclusion, diversity and equity, up to 2030, to continue to drive accountability. We are investing in specific programmes targeted at attracting senior diverse talent into the firm in typically under-represented areas, such as programmes like our Women in Deal Advisory Insight programme, where we're championing inspirational colleagues to build the future diverse talent pipeline.”

Key points from the 2021 annual results:

• The firm posted growth of 10%, with revenue rising from £2.14bn to £2.35bn* and profit before tax increasing from £288m to £436m.
• The firm has 571 partners and 14,739 employees. ****
• The firm’s colleagues are: 49.58% women; 28% are from an ethnic minority background; 5% are Black Heritage; 3.42% are Lesbian, Gay, Bi; 8% have a disability or a long-term condition and 21% are from a lower socio-economic background.
• 22% of KPMG UK’s board are from an ethnic minority background, 22% from a lower socio-economic background and 56% of the board are women.
• Total tax paid and collected totalled £917 million to HMRC.
• Average partner distribution increased from £572k to £688k.
• Bina Mehta, Chair of KPMG, received total remuneration of £879k.
• Jon Holt, Chief Executive of KPMG, received total remuneration of £1.7m.
• KPMG UK’s gender pay gap for colleagues and partners increased by 6.6 percentage points to 23.5% (median) and by 0.8 percentage points to 37% (mean).
• The firm’s ethnicity pay gap reduced by 1.5 percentage points to 10.2% (median) and reduced by 2.8 percentage points to 35.4% (mean).  These figures include both employees and partners.
• The firm’s sexual orientation pay gap increased by 1.6 percentage points to 4.6% (median) and 9.6% (mean).
• Its disability pay gap reduced by 1.4 percentage points to 8.6% (median) and 8.6% (mean).
• KPMG’s Black Heritage pay gap reduced by 0.5% percentage points to 9.1% (median) and reduced by 5.6% percentage points to 33.7% (mean).
• KPMG remains one of the most popular employers in the UK, ranking in the top 10 in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers survey for 2021 and featuring in the Times Top 50 Employer for Women for the 11th consecutive year.
• The firm also ranked in the top three Social Mobility Employer Index compiled by the Social Mobility Foundation, Social Mobility Commission and the City of London Corporation.
• KPMG was awarded Gold Award - Best Educational Programme, KPMG, National Numeracy and The Economist Educational Foundation.

-Ends-

Notes to Editors:

*These figures exclude revenue from the firm’s pensions and restructuring businesses. Including trading from the firm’s restructuring and pensions business, the firm posted growth of 6%, with revenue rising from £2.3bn to £2.43bn.

**Figures exclude restructuring net sales.

***Figures exclude pensions net sales.

****This number represents the spot headcount on 1st October 2021.

 

Table of net sales

Business area	Net sales 2020	Net sales 2021	Percentage change
Audit	£606m	£634m	5%
Tax and Legal***	£373m	£402m	8%
Consulting	£574m	£646m	13%
Deal Advisory**	£273m	£357m	31%

 

For more information contact:

Zoe Sheppard, Head of Media Relations, KPMG UK

Mobile: +44 (0)7770 737 994

Email:  zoe.sheppard@kpmg.co.uk

 

About KPMG

KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership, operates from 22 offices across the UK with approximately 15,300 partners and staff.  The UK firm recorded a revenue of £2.43 billion in the year ended 30 September 2021.

KPMG is a global organization of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Legal, Tax and Advisory services. It operates in 145 countries and territories with more than 236,000 partners and employees working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients.