Ernst & Young, Australia (“EY Australia” or “firm”) recorded $2.81 billion in revenue for the 12 months to 30 June 2024 (FY24), 5.5 per cent less than the previous year in which the firm’s revenue was $2.97 billion.
EY Regional Managing Partner and CEO Oceania, David Larocca said demand for some of the firm’s services softened in FY24, shaped by a challenging market in a slowing economy both in Australia and globally. The firm’s Assurance business, however, saw strong growth, while its Tax service line experienced another solid year.
“In the last 12 months, we’ve seen the market – including government, financial services and corporate clients – shift priorities and investment decisions in response to a difficult environment. We made very tough decisions this year to protect the sustainability of our business, as demand slowed for transaction and consulting-related services.”
“This challenging environment had a direct impact on our FY24 results, particularly our Consulting and Strategy and Transactions service lines. Despite this, our market-leading Assurance business performed very well, and our Tax service line saw strong results for another consecutive year.”
“From an industry perspective, although it has been a challenging environment we saw positive growth across the energy, mining and telco, media, and technology sectors.”
Revenue for the firm’s Assurance service line reached $0.71b, while Tax delivered $0.61b. Despite Consulting trending downwards, its revenue was $1.04b in FY24. Its Strategy and Transactions service line delivered $0.45b.
“Notwithstanding the very tough market conditions, and a heightened focus on professional services more broadly, we’re extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished and thank everyone for their contribution.”
David Larocca said EY people remain a top priority for the firm, having invested more than $50 million in its talent agenda across the EY Oceania member firms in FY24, including in learning and development, recruitment and onboarding, wellbeing initiatives, and culture change.
“Our people are at the heart of our business, so we’re taking action to further build a safe and inclusive workplace for everyone.”
“A year on from the release of the EB&Co. report, we’ve made strong progress addressing the recommendations we accepted. We will continue to be transparent about how we’re progressing in our annual Value Realised Scorecard.”
“We acknowledge, however, that transformative culture change isn’t delivered overnight – nor will it ever be ‘job done.’ It remains a long-term, continuous investment to ensure we build upon a diverse, respectful workplace where our people feel they can belong, perform and thrive.”
In the last fiscal year, EY Australia appointed 53 new partners, including 31 promotions to partner and 22 new partners hired. The firm also appointed 20 associate partners (including 12 promotions and 8 hires) and hired 658 graduates. Of newly promoted partners and associated partners, 32 per cent and 50 per cent are women, respectively.
David Larocca said the firm is in a strong position to support the Australian market and EY people through a period of significant change, as it leverages the power of generative AI and invests in its talent and culture.
“EY Australia continues to demonstrate leadership in audit quality, generative AI, digital transformation and supporting our clients to tackle the energy transition. In FY25, we’ll continue to invest in these areas to meet the evolving needs of our clients, while maintaining our leading audit quality and tax services.”
“We aim to have the largest and most AI-proficient professional services team in Australia, which is why we’re putting technology at the core of how we provide exceptional value and experience. Globally, EY has invested US$1.4 billion in building our very own enterprise-scale AI platform, EY.ai EYQ. By collaborating with our technology alliances, we can use AI to address complex challenges and deliver substantial value to clients and communities.”
“The appointment of Katherine Boiciuc as our new Chief Technology and Innovation Officer for Oceania reaffirms our commitment to strengthening our technology service offering and puts leadership, technology adoption, and data at the heart of our business – ensuring all EY clients can respond to change and disruption.”
“Bolstered by the EY Global Network and the new global ‘All in’ strategy, we’re committed to helping our people, clients and community stakeholders shape the future with confidence.”
“This includes having open and constructive conversations with stakeholders about regulatory reform and professional services practices. We’re supportive of greater Commonwealth-level regulation that uniformly regulates large partnerships and professional services, which will restore public trust and confidence in our sector.”
