Scyne Advisory reveals $18m redundancy costs in wider FY25 loss
Scyne Advisory's losses have ballooned to $137m since its separation from PwC, despite the consulting firm almost doubling its revenue amid a major restructure.
Scyne Advisory, the former consulting arm of PwC Australia, saw its after-tax loss widen by 17 per cent on the previous year after significant one-off costs from firing staff offset a near-doubling in revenue.
That means since starting operations in November 2023 Scyne has lost $137m after tax, according to its statutory financial report filed with the securities regulator.
When Allegro Funds purchased the company from PwC, both firms announced it as being a $1 sale. However, statutory accounts from the previous year revealed the private equity firm actually paid $14.3m and then tipped in a further $90m of cash into the newly separated company to get it running.
These figures contradicted the humble $1 origin story. Many marquee deal-makers then jumped ship when the renamed company failed to win business and those who remained have struggled to turn it around.
“The consolidated entity’s financial results for the year reflect the ongoing challenging market conditions which it has faced since it commenced operations with a significant reduction in spending on external professional services which resulted in a continuing tightening of demand in the markets in which the consolidated entity operates,” Scyne said in its Australian Securities & Investments Commission filings.
Chief executive John Ball was not available to interview. The private equity firm snapped up the consulting division in the wake of revelations PwC shared confidential government tax policy with potential corporate clients looking to reduce their Australian Taxation Office bills.
The rivers of cash flowing from Canberra’s coffers to Scyne, and Scyne’s former PwC talent, were diverted to other consulting firms, triggering a restructure the firm said was starting to bear fruit.
“During the second half of the year, the consolidated entity restructured its operating model into three practices to adjust to market conditions, focus on key growth areas, reset its cost base and optimise its operations,” the company said. “The restructure resulted in the reduction of a number of roles to appropriately resize the support required for the ongoing operations of the consolidated entity.”
The restructure resulted in one-off redundancy costs of almost $18m and the company also spent $13m on reporting and payroll systems. Revenue almost doubled to $209m.
After restructuring the business, Scyne did make a profit in the last quarter of the financial year, posting underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $4.1m profit in the fourth quarter of 2025 and also produced a smaller underlying EBITDA of $3.1m for the first quarter of the 2026 financial year, “Whilst market conditions remain challenging … the consolidated entity expects to build on that momentum,” the company said.
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