British and Swiss partners of KPMG have voted overwhelmingly in favour of merging their partnerships, creating a £3.4 billion professional services group.
The merger will see KPMG establish a new limited liability partnership (LLP) bringing together the two firm’s equity partners. The new LLP will own the existing UK and Swiss firms.
Jon Holt, KPMG UK’s chief executive and senior partner will lead the new partnership as Group CEO with Stefan Pfister, CEO of KPMG Switzerland, as Group Deputy CEO of the combined firm.
The merger comes on the back of a long and strong history of working together, for multinational clients as well as internally.
“This marks a historic moment for both firms. We will be stronger as one combined firm and together we will have the scale to significantly enhance our ability to deliver great outcomes for our clients both internationally and within our domestic markets. Merging brings huge benefits for our clients, our people, and our partnership and means we can now grow faster, be more profitable and invest together,” said Holt.
KPMG UK, which has about 18,000 employees, reported £2.96 billion in revenue in the year ended September 2023. The Swiss arm employs over 2,600 people and reported net revenues of 527 million francs ($576 million) last year.
“Together we will be more agile and can bring the best of KPMG’s multidisciplinary model and sector expertise to clients nationally and internationally while at the same time maintaining our local market understanding and execution power,” said Pfister.
Globally, KPMG has more than 160,000 staff worldwide and generates revenues of $36.4 billion.