Cost-cutting drive in public sectorsees revenues rise by 25pc at PwC

Lizzie Murphy

PROFESSIONAL services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers saw revenues from its public sector work increase by 25 per cent in the North over the last year.

The company said consulting, cost reduction, human resources transformation and working capital management formed the main part of its work in the public sector as the Government looks to reduce its debt burden.

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Steve Denison, chairman of PwC’s Northern region, said: “The public sector is an important part of our region.

“We have always done a lot of audit work in the public sector but we are doing more and more work on the consulting side. The Government is being encouraged to use its cash wisely.”

In addition, PwC’s Northern division, which includes Leeds, Sheffield and Hull, delivered an 11 per cent increase in revenues.

“We consider this an excellent performance given market conditions but are under no illusion that there remain challenges ahead,” said Mr Denison.

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“However, in the next 12 months we intend to make a significant number of senior appointments and create new jobs across our businesses to enhance the services and value we offer to our clients, particularly in our public sector, consulting and financial services teams.”

Mr Denison said turnover for the Northern region in the year ended June 2010 had remained on a par with the previous year.

PwC’s Yorkshire and Humberside practice has 76 partners and directors and almost 800 staff across its Leeds, Hull and Sheffield offices making PwC the largest professional services firm in the region.

Nationally, turnover grew by four per cent to 2.3bn, up from 2.2bn the previous year, while underlying net revenue also increased four per cent to 2bn.

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The firm has recently been appointed as auditors of Sheffield-based construction group Henry Boot. It has grown market share in the private company space, with new clients including Oval Group, thebigword and Quantum Clothing. It has also been appointed as auditors to Findus.

Meanwhile, the Yorkshire deal team, led by Nigel Ward and Stuart Warriner, advised on virtually all of the major deals across the region in 2010, including the management buyout of Andrew Page by Phoenix Equity Partners, the disposal of Callcredit Information Group by Skipton Building Society, the management buyout of Card Factory backed by Charterhouse Capital Partners and the acquisitions of Netto Foodstores by Asda, Republic Retail by TPG Capital, Visage Group by Li & Fun, JHP Group by LDC, and Integrated Pharmaceutical Services by Elysian Capital.

Mr Denison said: “The deals market hasn’t recovered to the levels we saw before the recession but we are encouraged by the fact that there have been a number of deals completed in the last 12 months.

“Work within our tax practice has also suffered due to the lack of deal flow because a lot of tax services is around transactions.

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“However, a buoyant part of the market is advising on pension scheme liabilities because more and more companies are closing completely their final salary pension schemes or reducing their exposure.”

Mr Denison added that the restructuring division remained a buoyant part of the market for the company.

“It’s not been as manic as the first 12 months of the recession. We are now helping corporates and banks to implement strategies to emerge from the recession. The nature of what we are doing has changed but the overall volume has remained very high.”

Looking to the next year, Mr Denison said: “One of our great strengths is the diverse nature of our portfolio of business. We expect the public sector to remain an important part of our business but we also expect to see an increase in revenues from entrepreneurs and private companies.

“One of Yorkshire’s great strengths is the number of really great entrepreneurs that it has produced and continues to produce. That is a really exciting market place for us.”