For Grant Thornton Baltic, which operates in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the financial year ended on 30 September 2023 was the hardest-working financial year in its more than three-decades-long history. The company’s revenue was a record 16.2 million euros, which was an increase of almost 22% from the year before.
Nearly half of the revenue was generated by Grant Thornton Estonia, which also boasted the highest relative revenue growth (23%). Estonia is followed by Lithuania (22% growth) and Latvia (21%). In the Baltics, revenue by service line was as follows: audit and assurance 40%, corporate accounting and outsourcing 40% and advisory services 20%.
Grant Thornton Baltic Managing Partner Mati Nõmmiste said the hard times in the economy have increased the company’s need for business advisory services. “Increasingly, the business community understands that money spent on getting professional advice pays off in spades, so business advisory can be viewed as a long-term investment,“ said Mati Nõmmiste. He said companies outsource services increasingly – accounting and payroll, for instance. Auditors’ volumes of work have also grown. “High inflation has generated more work for auditors because companies’ sales revenues have also grown and many of them have become subject to audit obligation,“ said Nõmmiste.
In 2024, Nõmmiste looks forward to Grant Thornton Baltic continuing to grow. Yet despite the optimism, the unstable economy in Europe and the rest of the world could have an impact on results. So could the lack of qualified workforce in the Baltics.
Although finding good employees is not the easiest thing to do, Grant Thornton Baltic’s headcount grew due to the need to complete increasing work volumes. Both in Estonia and Lithuania, the number of employees is over 100, in Latvia it is close to 60. “The number of employees in Estonia has grown for several years running. Our team has added both young people still completing their studies and experienced specialists. But finding good people is still complicated,” admitted Mati Nõmmiste. To ease this problem, the focus in recent years has been to partner with universities teaching economics and financial administration. “At TalTech, we have awarded scholarships on three occasions and in spring we will give a scholarship at the University of Tartu for the first time,” said Mati Nõmmiste.
Grant Thornton Baltic is part of Grant Thornton International network, which has more than 145 member companies. For Grant Thornton International as well, the financial year ended was successful. Revenues grew 11% globally, hitting USD 7.5 billion. The network reported double-digit growth across all main service lines (assurance, tax and advisory) and the regional growth was led by EMEA, i.e. Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Peter Bodin, CEO of Grant Thornton International Ltd, commented on the good results: “Grant Thornton member firms have proved their resilience over recent years in the face of geo-political, economic and regulatory disruption and these results show how successfully our member firms are helping clients navigate this volatility.”