The big four audit and consulting firm EY has posted its third consecutive year of double-digit revenue growth in Luxembourg.
Revenue increased from €369m the previous year to €416.6m in the most recent financial year, which ended on 30 June 2024, the company stated on Wednesday.
EY said it was sticking to its goal, set in 2020, of reaching total turnover of €500m by 2026. Its rivals PWC passed the €500m mark in the 2021/2022 and Deloitte in the 2023/2024 financial year.
Turnover increased by 12.9% year-on-year and by 58.4% compared to the 2019/2020 financial year. It posted annual gains of 13.5% in the 2023/2024 financial year, 13.6% in 2021/2022 and 8.7% in 2020/2021.
, country managing partner of EY Luxembourg, attributed the three years of solid growth to both a growing market and the firm gaining marketshare.
“We all recognise that there have been a lot of opportunities in the market” overall, Coekelbergs said in an interview on 4 December 2024. At the same time, “we are positioned pretty well in a number of business areas, especially when it comes to alternative investment funds,” and “we’ve been pretty good at capturing this opportunity.” The firm “took, clearly, marketshare” in the private market fund space.
Its strategy around services offerings, particularly managed services, has pushed growth as well, Coekelbergs stated during the interview. “We have invested a lot in digital solutions to make sure that our services are, I would say, best in class. Twenty years ago, the strength of a big four firm was all about people. Today, it’s still about good people, but with good technology. If you don’t have [good] technology today, you’re out of the game.”
The firm, Coekelbergs said, has “developed a number of tools which enables us to deliver very high-quality services to our clients, but on a digital basis. And that makes a big difference, because thanks to these technologies, you can increase volume, you can reduce the potential number of mistakes that you do, because it’s all digital. And you can also absorb a bigger volume at a more competitive price, and that’s what our clients want to see.”
EY’s tax segment posted a year-on-year revenue increase of 12.7%, its highest rate for at least seven years.
The firm has “taken marketshare” in the tax segment due to its investment in digital tools, Coekelbergs told Paperjam. Today, “tax services are more and more based on technology, because tax services are more about reporting these days.”
The firm’s strategy and transactions segment, one of its smallest, posted a year-on-year gain of 12.9%, after recording an annual growth rate of 44% in 2022 and 2023. That is largely a reflection of market conditions.
“If you talk to anyone in Luxembourg, you’ll hear the same thing. The level of transactions has been slowing down over the past two years.” Increased interest rates, market volatility, geopolitical uncertainty and concerns about valuation have caused investors “to slow down their investment pace.”
“But we see that it’s slowly picking up,” Coekelbergs said. “At some point, those who have assets need to sell them, and those who have capital have to deploy. So supply and demand will come back.... we see that this is picking up, so we are confident that ’25 will be a better year for transactions.”
EY said it hired 910 employees in the year to 30 June 2024, with its total Luxembourg headcount standing at 2,206.
The company said that its new 8,000 square metre site in Cloche d’Or had space for 450 staff and it planned to occupy the space in the third quarter of 2025.
Among its regulated activities, audit services represented 85% of revenue.