PricewaterhouseCoopers Malta’s fee income in 2010 grew by 15 per cent in 2010 to €19 million, compared to €16.5 million in 2009, according to the firm’s latest review, which contains its transparency report.

“2010 has been a better year for many of our clients. It has as well been a year where we have seen continued growth in the financial services industry. PwC performed in this environment and recorded a 15 per cent increase in fee income, which totalled €19 million in 2010,” Kevin Valenzia, PwC Malta territory senior partner, said in his introduction to the report.

“The firm has grown rapidly since EU accession in 2004 and I believe that the prospects for our profession in the years ahead remain equally exciting. Growth at this rate presents challenges. Foremost among these is the need to build and retain our human resources and in this respect we are no different from our clients. We have invested heavily in this area and will continue to do so,” Mr Valenzia said.

The report said that improvements were registered across all the firm’s lines of service, assurance, advisory and tax.

“The assurance practice also benefitted from new statutory mandates won during the year, including two listed companies, Go plc and Lombard Bank plc. At December 31, 2010 the firm was the statutory auditor of 40 per cent of the issuers with equity and or bonds listed on the Malta Stock Exchange,” it said.

The launch of the PwC Academy in Malta “has been an outstanding success”, the report said, and a total of 20 events were held between May and December 2010.

During 2010 the maximum fees PwC Malta earned from any one client or client group amounted to 2.3 per cent of its total billings. The firm received 52 per cent of its total billings from clients based in Malta while 48 per cent came from clients operating overseas. Fifty seven per cent of the firm’s tax and advisory billings came from non-audit clients while 43 per cent came from audit clients.

The report highlights that conflicts of interest may arise on non-audit services, in particular when clients request assistance on purchase or sale transactions that may involve other clients in a counterparty or competitor capacity.

“Generally speaking, depending on the nature of the bid and the role requested from us, our firm prefers to act for only one party in a competitive bidding situation. When approached by more than one company to assist on a particular transaction, and after ensuring, where applicable, that we are able to assist on the transaction concerned within the constraints of audit independence rules, we act for the party who first approaches the firm.

“In certain cases, it may be considered appropriate to assist more than one bidder. In such instances, all the clients concerned are advised that we would be acting on an exclusive arrangement. The work concerned would in such cases be handled by teams working in a strictly segregated fashion. Such situations typically arise when the work requested from us is relatively limited, e.g., reporting on the proper technical preparations supporting a bid,” it said.

PwC Malta said that when acting for the government as its advisor in a privatisation or in the formulation and award of a public sector contract, it recognises that in the interest of transparency such work must always be conducted on an exclusivity basis.

“We would expect, as a matter of probability, that a proportion of the eventual bidders will be clients in one capacity or another of the firm or of other members of the PwC network. In all such cases, we decline from acting for any of these clients in relation to the bid concerned,” it said.

PwC Malta employs a full time staff of 272, including 176 accountants and 26 other professionals. Extracts from the PwC staff survey conducted in May 2010 shows that over 90 per cent of these interviewed were full of praise for the firm’s partners, sense of leadership and training and educational opportunities.

“Looking ahead I am convinced that we are well placed to face the challenges that will undoubtedly arise during 2011 and beyond. As a firm, we do what is right, and encourage our people to express their opinion, while focusing on building long-term relationships with our clients,” Mr Valenzia said.