PKF Accountants Report Outstanding Growth for their 2007/8 Financial Year

PKF Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers have been punching way above their weight in recent years. In the 2007 financial year the firm met its target of 15 percent growth easily. But what really distinguished this mid-tier accounting firm was the top-four placing it achieved, for the third year running, in the DealMakers rankings of corporate finance transactions for the year. With 21 transactions completed, PKF were third only to PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte in the number of deals they concluded, and fourth in the total value of all transactions undertaken.

The firm’s Pretoria office, in particular, did spectacularly well, growing turnover by over 50 percent in 2007/8. This was achieved largely as a result of new JSE Securities Exchange listings they handled, and a growing amount of work the office has been doing on behalf of the Auditor General.

National chairman Andrew Hannington (pictured right) says the firm’s overall growth can be ascribed to its ability to take advantage of a growing economy. “The JSE Securities Exchange’s phenomenal growth last year led to a large number of new listings, and we were able to win a disproportionate amount of this work, in many cases acquiring new clients in the process.” He adds: “We now have over 40 listed clients.”

Word of mouth

Another factor is a tendency by many businesses to move away from the “big four” accounting firms as they realise that the next tier of accountants – such as PKF – are able to do the same work without being as expensive. Reputation also plays a big role. “A lot of our new work comes to us as a result of word-of-mouth recommendations,” says Hannington, “which I believe results from our passion for providing a good quality, highly personalised service to our clients.”

The addition of new blood to the firm’s management structure over the past 14 months will further enhance its ability to adapt to changing market conditions and continue growing to meet ambitious growth targets. Andrew Hannington assumed his present post in January 2007, and since then new managing directors have been appointed in the Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Welkom offices as older members have retired or made way for younger colleagues. “With entrepreneurially driven companies making up around 80 percent of our clientele,” says Hannington, “we need to behave in an entrepreneurial way ourselves.”

He adds: “We have positioned ourselves right behind the four biggest accounting firms, and intend to take fifth place in most categories we can measure: turnover, headcount, and profitability. We have become a credible alternative to the big firms, and plan to keep it that way.”