Strong growth: BDO increases turnover by more than 16 per cent and achieves the best financial year

Hamburg, 22 April 2024 - The auditing and consulting firm BDO has significantly exceeded its self-imposed growth targets, increased the strong double-digit growth of the previous year once again and achieved the best financial year in the company's history. The German BDO Group increased its turnover in the 2022/2023 reporting year[1] by 16.5 per cent compared to the previous year (14.1 per cent). This resulted in new record turnover of € 404 million, which had most recently totalled € 347 million. All business areas contributed to the excellent sales performance with double-digit growth. The number of employees also increased significantly. Due to the strong increase in client demand, BDO now employs more than 3,000 experts in 27 offices. A further office will be opened in Nuremberg in the middle of the year.

"The success story of recent years continues. We have invested a lot in personnel and digitalisation. These are the cornerstones of our high quality and our strong, continuous growth," say Andrea Bruckner and Parwäz Rafiqpoor, who have been CEOs of BDO for a year. They are responsible for the development and implementation of the long-term corporate strategy. Both see very good opportunities for BDO in the future, not least due to the regulatory environment and limited capacities in the market. "The market has become tighter and is looking for another major international player. For clients, it is not the size of an auditing and consulting firm that is decisive, but performance and quality. And what is needed is a holistic view of the client's needs. BDO offers all of this," says Parwäz Rafiqpoor. "BDO is another big player. We have an interdisciplinary approach and can act agilely and flexibly," emphasises Andrea Bruckner. "We have the expertise, the technologies and the capacities to audit and advise clients from the DAX segment and major medium-sized companies."

According to Bruckner, BDO's international presence is also a big advantage. "A large and strong international network is the basis for further success. BDO is globally positioned. Our efficiency in an international network makes the difference." Parwäz Rafiqpoor emphasises: "BDO Global is represented worldwide with more than 115,000 employees in 166 countries and has a total turnover of US$ 14 billion. At our company in Germany, more than a third of our business is international."

Auditing grows by more than 21 per cent to € 179 million
Audit & Assurance recorded the strongest growth within the three business divisions. Turnover rose from € 148 million to € 179 million, an increase of 21.2 (14.7) per cent compared to the previous year. This does not yet include the two major audit mandates from SAP, which was recently successfully audited for the first time, and EnBW - both mandates will only be included in the balance sheet in the next financial year and the one after that. "Our strategy of strengthening our organisation with experienced experts and investing in technology at the same time is leading to visible success," says Andrea Bruckner, who is responsible for quality/compliance and risk management as well as all internal divisions, digital transformation and sustainability.

"By investing in new technical solutions and, in particular, AI-based tools, we are countering the increasing complexity resulting from the extensive requirements of the CSRD, for example. With the help of these assistance systems, our experts are relieved of routine tasks, such as data analysis, and can therefore focus on the more relevant areas of the audit," explains Bruckner. The Digital Competence Centre for Auditing, which BDO set up a few years ago with the Department of Information Management and Business Informatics at the University of Osnabrück, supports BDO with the development.
The service portfolio has been further expanded. For example, the IT & Controls Assurance department provides audit-related consulting services for companies on IT and business processes, regulatory requirements and artificial intelligence. In addition, the Sustainability Services division was significantly expanded in terms of personnel and expertise.

Tax Technology fuels growth at Tax & Legal
With a 40.1 per cent share of turnover, the Tax & Legal service division almost equalled Audit & Assurance with a 44.4 per cent share. Turnover here rose by 13.9 (10.9) per cent compared to the previous year to € 162 (142) million. In addition to VAT and International Tax, Tax Technology contributed to this growth. "We have a very high level of digitalisation in tax consulting," says Parwäz Rafiqpoor, who has departmental responsibility for T&L as well as Advisory and is in charge of the commercial client-related decisions of the operating units. "Clients are asking for digital solutions. We offer them a tool kit that significantly simplifies their processes and compensates for personnel bottlenecks. We are gradually expanding our digital platform to include all types of tax." As a result, large companies, including DAX-listed groups, are now increasingly relying on the tax expertise of BDO.

Advisory Services: Very strong transaction business
There was also a double-digit increase in the Advisory services division. Turnover increased by 10.6 (22.2) per cent to € 63 (57) million. Although the European M&A market declined overall in 2023, growth was driven by the transaction business - a success that is also reflected in the renewed top rankings in the current PitchBook League Tables. The Corporate Finance and Energy specialist areas are particularly strong in Advisory, and the Healthcare division has also returned to its former strength following a personnel reorganisation. The share of turnover in the BDO Group is 15.5 per cent.

New subsidiary: With VICO into the world of AI-supported data
The new acquisition, VICO Research & Consulting GmbH, which specialises in IT data analysis, market research, social media monitoring and review monitoring, is also developing very well. The company, which is based just outside Stuttgart, is particularly in demand in the automotive industry and consumer electronics sector and counts VW, Deutsche Telekom, Bosch and Daimler among its customers. VICO's technical expertise in Large Language Models (LLM) will now be successively transferred to BDO's traditional auditing and consulting services.
The expansion of two further subsidiaries, BDO Digital GmbH and BDO Cyber Security GmbH, is also developing very promisingly. For example, the Security Operation Centre (SOC) has gone live 24/7 and monitors clients' security architecture via a cloud-based system to respond to external threats and attacks in real time. An Incident Response team can also take over in case of an attack. In view of the major IT challenges for companies, the portfolio of both subsidiaries has been significantly expanded and staff numbers increased.

ESG, transformation and cyber as growth drivers of the future
Looking ahead, cyber security, ESG and the technology-driven transformation of the economy are the key growth drivers. "Many companies and public institutions are undergoing a far-reaching transformation process. They are adapting their business models and ecosystems are changing," says Parwäz Rafiqpoor. "Customers need customised solutions and interdisciplinary specialists. This is where we are needed." Andrea Bruckner sees a particularly strong growth area in ESG when around 15,000 companies in Germany will soon be required to report. "To this end, we have significantly expanded our Sustainability Services department in recent months and increased the number of staff. We are experiencing an enormous increase in demand."