KPMG in the Middle East and South Asia (MESA), a top professional service networks in the region, reported 12.7 per cent growth in aggregated revenues of member firms across the MESA region for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2017.

Revenues across all core functions grew in double digits with audit revenues increasing by 13 per cent, Tax by 19.1 per cent and advisory by 10.6 per cent. Within advisory, deal advisory and risk consulting revenues increased by more than 20 per cent this year.

KPMG in Bahrain’s managing partner, Jamal Fakhro said: “As the challenging economic conditions are beginning to show signs of improvement, I believe there are a lot of business opportunities in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the region, which we will continue to leverage. Businesses are still working to transform their operations to keep up with market disruption and developments, and it is for this reason that we continue to work closely with our clients to help them grow their business.”

William B Thomas, chairman of KPMG International, said: “The robust growth achieved by our member firms for the fourth consecutive year has once again placed MESA among the fastest growing regions within the KPMG network. We see MESA as a high growth market and one which we will continue to invest in both globally and through our local member firms.”

By the end of FY17, KPMG’s resource pool across the MESA region had expanded to nearly 7,500 professionals and associates, with member firms present in 15 countries and covering 32 office locations.

This year KPMG member firms in the region received a number of prestigious accolades. These included the Best Audit Services Award at the MENA Insurance Review’s Insurance Awards 2017 won by KPMG in the Lower Gulf and the Advisory Services Company of the Year Award at MEED awards 2017 won by KPMG in Saudi Arabia. KPMG is ranked as a ‘Top Tier Firm’ in the GCC according to ITR World Tax and among Universum’s Most Attractive Employers in the Middle East.  

Abdullah Al Fozan, chairman for KPMG Middle East and South Asia said: “The year has been an exciting one as we continued to work alongside the region’s major transformation programs, assisting numerous clients for the introduction of VAT and also in digitalization programs for many regional conglomerates. In addition, we established our first data and analytics lighthouse, increased the use of analytics across all our core functions and introduced Clara, our smart audit platform to the region.”

Commenting on recent investments and alliances, he added that KPMG has scaled up senior resourcing in areas of public sector transformation and healthcare among many other priority sectors. A recent acquisition added 35 professionals with experience in both cloud and on premise technology solutions. In the alliance space, KPMG’s global alliance with Microsoft was extended to the Middle East earlier this year.

KPMG has ambitious plans for the region and will continue to build on its strengths in the year ahead in order to be seen as the clear choice for clients. – TradeArabia News Service