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The changing economic base has generated a substantial shift in the volume of work and in the type of work that Big Four and mid-tier firms in Singapore conduct. David Hayes speaks to Chaly Mah from Deloitte & Touche Singapore about the firm's growth in the city state
Deloitte & Touche Singapore employs around 1,400 qualified accountants, a workforce similar in number to that which is employed by KPMG Singapore but smaller than the staff at Ernst & Young Singapore (E&Y) and Price-waterhouseCoopers Singapore (PwC). PwC is the largest of the Big Four firms in the city state with an estimated 1,650 qualified accountants.
Deloitte has grown quickly since Singapore pulled out of the 1997 Asian financial crisis and is looking at various solutions to increase qualified staff numbers and expand the practice in future.
Chaly Mah Chee Kheong, Deloitte CEO and country managing partner, tells IAB: "I have been CEO for four years and we have grown from 700 to 1,400 people." Audit is the largest practice within Deloitte. Mah estimates that 55 percent of the firm's staff work in audit. He adds: "Before I took over we were behind, so we have grown a lot across all services. A lot of growth has come from building an all-round firm."
Noting that Deloitte does not publish revenue details, Mah continues: "We have put on expertise in non-audit areas to help build [the firm]. We have grown tax, financial services and consulting. An ideal [future fee split for the firm] would be audit 40 percent to 45 percent, tax 20 percent, consulting 20 percent and financial services 15 percent... I would like to see this happen in the next three to five years."
Mah argues that Deloitte has an advantage over the rest of the Big Four because of its consulting practice. "That helps a lot as we have now a complete range of services," he says.
A global city
Deloitte's recent growth mirrors Singapore's economic renaissance. Just three years ago the city state was in the middle of a slump. The lesser-skilled jobs sector suffered the most during this period and workers have had to retrain to be employable by a new wave of investors looking to tap into Singapore's higher skills base...