it’s china, stupid!

grant thornton international’s revenues drop 9%.

but the real news is that for the first time the us and uk combined make up less than half of gti’s fees. that’s “hardly surprising given the crisis everyone has been grappling with,” gavin hinks writes at accountancy age:

but its the shift in the balance of power that is fascinating. china and hong kong has for the first time become one of gti’s top ten performing territories… are we looking at a time when those territories are so successful that gti has to run the organization out of beijing? hsbc’s chief executive michael geoghegan has just relocated to hong kong to be closer to the bank’s center of main interest. how long before other multinational ceos find they have to do the same thing?”

financial director has the rest:

revenues for gti’s 96 member firms stood at $3.6 billion for the year ended sept. 30, 2009,  compared to about $4 billion in 2008.  assurance services fell 4% to $1.6 billion.

“grant thornton, like all businesses, saw its revenue hindered by a difficult global economy in 2009, however, i am encouraged by these results. we knew the last 12 months would be challenging and many member firms had to make tough decisions to cut costs and refocus their businesses,” said new gti ceo ed nusbaum.

posted on january 29, 2010