Combined revenue of South Korea’s top four accounting companies – Samil PwC, Samjong KPMG, EY Hanyoung and Deloitte Anjin – surpassed 2 trillion won ($1.7 billion) for the first time in the fiscal year 2020 due to the growth of management and tax consulting business.

The four companies raked in 2.16 trillion won in sales in the fiscal year 2020, up 9.2 percent from the previous year, according to data from the Financial Supervisory Service last Friday. The on-year growth pace, however, slowed down from 16.6 percent in 2018 and 13.2 percent in 2019.

Samil recorded the highest sales, retaining the top position from the previous year. Samil posted 763.3 billion won in revenue from July 1 in 2020 to June 30 in 2021, up 11.46 percent from the same period a year ago. The gain was also the fastest among the top four.

Samjong came second with 620.2 billion won from April 1 in 2020 to March 31 in 2021, up 10.45 percent on year.

Hanyoung’s revenue grew 4 percent from a year earlier to 403.6 billion won from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. The tepid growth widened the gap with No.2 Samjong. Anjin posted 374.6 billion won in revenue from June 1 in 2020 to May 31 in 2021, up 8.45 percent on year.

The double-digit on-year gains of Samil and Samjong were mostly led by management and tax consulting businesses. Due to the financial authorities’ periodic auditor designation system and increased number of mid-sized listed firms, their core auditing business’ contribution to entire sales has declined, while business and tax advice services have been growing steadily. Samjong raised more than half of its revenue, 329 billion won, and Samil 312.6 billion won from business consulting.

“Demand for management consulting service has increased due to the M&A boom and environmental, social and governance (ESG) management trend,” said an official from an accounting industry.

By Kim Myung-hwan and Choi Mira

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