Business performance & highlights

Gross revenues grew by 11.5% to reach £2,010m, just exceeding the £2 billion target set two years earlier. Net revenue (revenues net of client disbursements) grew by 11.8% with good growth in each division. Profits available for distribution to partners and retired partners increased by 19.4% to £683m. Profit before tax grew by 16.0% to £654m and average profit per partner increased to £970,000 (£877,000).

Our Audit practice built further upon the winning position it has attained in the last few years, achieving net revenue growth of 11.1% with particularly strong performances from our security, risk and regulatory teams, combined with a continuing flow of new clients in our core audit division. New clients this year included Barratt Developments, Corus, Gallaher and Taylor Wimpey. Deloitte is now the co-leader in share of FTSE 250 audits.

Tax had a very good year, notwithstanding the significant impact of the downturn in M&A activity. Net revenue growth was 10.6%, fuelled by our leading position in many service lines and the opportunities offered by a tax environment that remains uncertain, with continuing legislative change leading to a demand for our compliance, reporting and accounting services. The accelerated interest in the UK from emerging markets has led to a healthy demand for the services of our international tax team.

Consulting net revenue grew by an exceptional 13.2%, with particularly strong performance in enterprise applications, the business systems planning and implementation unit. From an industry perspective, the highest growth was achieved in the financial services and the technology, media and telecommunications practices. A particular success in the year was securing a number of major contracts which were supported by our key propositions, including finance transformation, enterprise cost reduction and business-critical programmes.

Our Corporate Finance practice achieved extremely robust net revenue growth of 13.1% notwithstanding a significantly reduced rate of growth in the last quarter. Whilst boom time M&A work has tailed off, growth was buoyed by debt, forensic and restructuring work and our agility in responding to changing client needs. Of the five significant Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs) restructurings that occurred in 2008, Deloitte led the four largest projects, including the headline-grabbing $9bn receivership of Cheyne Finance. Our forensic and dispute services group has seen tremendous growth over the past year, with revenues up 50% and our Corporate Finance advisory team had a successful year assisting with multinational deals, particularly those involving Infrastructure or Sovereign Wealth Funds.