EY sees fee income of €220m in Republic as growth continues

Accounting and consulting firm EY recorded fee income of €220 million in the Republic in the 12 months to the end of June, up 16.2 per cent on the previous year. This was its third year in a row in which EY achieved revenue growth of 16 per cent or more, and followed double-digit increases across its four business service lines.

EY’s audit and other assurance service reported revenue growth of 11.6 per cent to €147 million during the year.

Its transaction advisory services business also performed strongly, with revenues increasing 11.5 per cent. The firm said this was based on the “continuing confidence of indigenous Irish businesses in growth through acquisition and refinancing of facilities”.

EY’s tax business posted revenue growth of 11.6 per cent to €37.8 million. This was attributed to a high volume of transactions in the first half of the year, along with growth in the domestic mid-market bolstered by investment in the firm’s private client business.

The performance improvement division of its advisory unit grew 73 per cent due to ongoing demand for business transformation, process improvement, digital strategy, and people and organisational change.

Investments

Commenting on the firm’s growth, EY’s country managing partner Mike McKerr told

The Irish Times

: “For the third year in a row it was pretty broadly spread. All of our service lines grew more than double-digit. The market is helping a bit but a lot of the investments we’ve made in the past number of years are probably coming to fruition.”

At the end of September 2016, EY employed 2,088 across the island, including its recent intake of 253 graduates. Mr McKerr said this could increase to 300 next year to help the firm capture growth opportunities.

In addition, the firm announced 270 new jobs in June of this year, of which about 80 roles remain to be filled.

Mr McKerr said EY had set up a working group to consider the challenges and opportunities created by Brexit. “There’s the issue of the Border and what will happen North-South. We lobby hard to try and make sure there isn’t a reinstatement of a hard border [with Northern Ireland].

Free movement

“That free movement of goods and people and the economic movement has been an incredibly positive thing. In our own business we’ve seen the benefit of that. It really would be a backward step in reinstating a hard border with the South.

“So we are lobbying hard around that with governments, and trying to get out scenario planning going about what this might mean for certain sectors of our economy.”

Mr McKerr said growth in the first quarter of the current financial year (July to September) was “pretty much in line” with last year at 15 to 20 per cent across its service lines.

“We see some hesitation around international transactions, which is understandable but other parts of the business continue to really thrive. Hopefully that will continue for the rest of the year.”