Grant Thornton’s annual balance sheet for 2021/22 again shows revenue growth, to 187 million euro

Düsseldorf, 1 March 2023

• Grant Thornton continues its trajectory of growth with positive revenue results of 10 percent
• Development of expertise with more teams of experts
• The focus in 2022/23 is on further growth, supported by the continuation of the brand campaign focusing as an employer brand
• Well positioned due to the strong international network to audit and advise high-end internationally active mid-market and listed companies

Grant Thornton concluded their 2021/22 business year ending 30 September 2022 with a positive result of 10 percent and with revenue of 187 million euro. This continues their trajectory of growth despite the economically unstable situation.

The past financial year was characterised by the rebranding from Warth & Klein Grant Thornton to Grant Thornton which took effect on 1 March 2022. In this way, the company further consolidated its orientation towards mid-market companies that do business internationally. It was again able to achieve success in its target market and acquire new and attractive clients. “We are proud to say that we can report growth in nearly all service lines and offices. This is an expression of Grant Thornton’s stable and sustainable development”, in the words of Michael Häger, CEO of Grant Thornton. “We are also pleased with the significant growth in terms of employees across the whole company and particularly with the many additions at partner level”. Behind the successful development of the business are approximately 1,600 employees (as of: 30/09/2022).

The growth trend continues

The largest service line, Audit & Assurance, grew year-on-year by 14 percent to 63 million euro in revenue, which is primarily due to the acquisition of new clients. Besides clients, personnel structure was developed and the portfolio expanded by the addition of new partners. Furthermore, it was possible to expand services in the field of ESG reporting as well as in the innovative area of data science. New audit clients include Real GmbH, the publicly listed electronics company Katek SE and the payment services provider Payone GmbH.

The Tax service line concluded the financial year with growth of 7 percent to 51 million euro. This was possible by continuing to develop many areas and competences: the Transfer Prices service line at the Düsseldorf and Hamburg offices, Financial Services Tax in Frankfurt and the VAT service line in Frankfurt and Munich were consolidated by the addition of internal and external partners.

The Advisory service line reported the greatest growth of all service lines with an increase in revenue of 15 percent to 34 million euro. The new service that is part of transaction consulting should be mentioned in particular. The Operational Deal Services area combines all the services of the entire M&A life-cycle. This service serves to distinguish Grant Thornton from the other competitors among the ‘Next Seven’.

The Business Process Solutions service line concluded the 2021/22 year successfully with a plus of 7 percent to revenue of 27 million euro, which was primarily characterised by positive organic growth. The Legal service line reported stable business, but ended the financial year with a decrease in revenue of 9 percent to 6 million euro. Private Finance continued its growth trajectory by 7 percent to 6 million euro.

The Group’s development also shows itself in the further development of the offices, especially those in Frankfurt and Hamburg. The more concentrated presence in the economic centres of Germany is also underlined by new properties. An innovative office was set up in Frankfurt am Main, whose flexible space conception was developed in collaboration with staff, and which puts the focus on agile and networked working. A new home was also found for the three Hamburg offices.

With its growth in revenue, Grant Thornton in Germany counts as one of the positive developments in the international network. Grant Thornton International reported growth for the 2021/22 financial year of 13.7 percent of 7.2 billion US dollars.

Expansion of the client base

Furthermore, the company has also been able to acquire important clients in its target segment among upper mid-market and listed companies. It is consistently pursuing its focus on clients in the area of public-interest entities (PIEs), including abroad, and starting with the first joint project with Grant Thornton Austria. The two companies are combining their competences to assist PIE auditing clients in Austria. With its strong set-up Grant Thornton considers itself to be well-positioned in the short-term to be auditors for DAX-40 PIE companies.

Grant Thornton is pursuing a holistic strategy and a multidisciplinary business model. In this way, client relationships based on trust can successively be expanded from one service line to other. As Grant Thornton sees it, this approach and the accompanying offer of all-round assistance does not contradict consistent observance of the strict and necessary independence requirements.

One example of this is the DuMont media group, which took Grant Thornton on to audit their individual and group financial statements in the last financial year based on their experience with a consulting project. Another multidisciplinary client is the Sappi Group, which Grant Thornton was able to gain with a joint market presence in tax and advisory. As the leading global solutions provider for cellulose and paper, we were able to provide them with consulting as part of a complex international carve-out.

Digitalisation and sustainability as drivers of development

In the 2021/22 financial year as well, Grant Thornton was able to continue pushing its own digitalisation agenda forward, both internally and with clients. “We are in the midst of a digital transformation of the core services of advisory and auditing. As auditors, we are experts at this and drive it on. The digitalisation of processes and services for our clients is a considerable part of what we promise”, according to Dr Heike Wieland-Blöse, board member and board spokeswoman from October 2023. 

The Audit & Assurance service line supports its clients with an expanded range of services on the data-supported transformation of the service portfolio on auditing and audit-related consulting as well as with data-based solutions. The focus of one new team is data science, data analysis and process mining.

In the Tax service line too, it has been possible to develop digitalisation competence across all the service lines and associated portfolio of services on the market. This was possible in particular by continually building up the team as well as by agreeing strategic cooperation arrangements. In this regard, the tax technology service line for SAP/ S4Hana and the implementation of VAT engines should particularly be mentioned. We have also developed our own tools, which are used for property tax or workations.

In Advisory, Grant Thornton is developing transaction analytics to give clients analytical support with M&A transactions, with the goal of establishing this nationwide, and then across the network.

A further factor of development in the industry, which therefore also concerns Grant Thornton, is the consistent focus on sustainability. In order to combine all the aspects of advisory on sustainability, the company has created the Center of Excellence for Sustainability, which has successfully begun work.

Continued stable growth during the unstable 2022/23 financial year

With a view to the future, too, the focus is on sustainability: ESG reporting services are to be developed and further expertise and services established. Experts report that this area in particular demonstrates high potential for growth because this year many companies have to take action with regard to ESG reporting.

The financial year 2022/23 has got off to a solid start. On the basis of current economic and political developments, Grant Thornton expects to face new challenges this year as well. Nevertheless, the company is looking optimistically to the future. During the last financial year, we built up a reliable structure of stability and agility that enables us to respond to challenges quickly and professionally,” Häger comments. “So that we will be able to look back on a successful financial year in the autumn of 2023 as well, we are continuing to pursue our programme of growth and thereby the additions of partners and team members that goes with it.”

Acquiring and attaining employees are also crucial competition and growth factors for Grant Thornton. In order to be able to penetrate the still strained job market with a higher level of recognition and attractiveness, an employer branding campaign was launched in spring 2023. This is tightly interconnected with the current brand campaign that was launched in June 2022.

About Grant Thornton in Germany

Grant Thornton is one of the ten largest audit firms in Germany. Around 1,600 employees at eleven offices provide services to upper mid-market companies and listed companies. The audit and consultancy firm consists of the service lines Audit & Assurance, Tax, Advisory, Business Process Solutions, Legal, and Private Finance. The company is the German member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd. The Grant Thornton network has 68,000 employees and advises companies in around 150 countries around the world. www.grantthornton.de

Contact 

Susanne Gehrling
Head of Corporate Communications
+49 69 905598 617
susanne.gehrling@de.gt.com