Deloitte earnings up in all main divisions

ACCOUNTANCY giant Deloitte said its pre-tax profit was up by 22.3 per cent to £564 million over the year to May 31, with growth in all four of its main divisions.

The company, which has offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen and 32 partners in Scotland, does not break out a separate figure for Scotland, but Ralph Adams, senior partner for the group in Scotland, said:

"The past year has seen continued strong growth for the Scottish practice, mirroring the picture for the firm across the UK. We have increased our head count by over 12 per cent and now have more than 500 people based in Scotland."

UK revenues rose by 15.6 per cent to £1.8 billion, while the average profit per partner grew to £877,000, from £765,000 the year before. Profits to be shared among the firm's partners and retired partners this year amounted to £572m with John Connolly, Deloitte's senior partner, seeing his pay rise to £4.7m, from £4.2m.

The strongest growth in profits came from the consulting and corporate finance units of the business, with increases of almost 28 and 25 per cent respectively.

Mr Connolly, lead auditor on the RBS account, said: "Our performance reflects strong markets creating growing opportunities to serve our clients."