Layoff shock: PWC culls jobs of 60 partners and 1,500 staff in this region — check details

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) has slashed around 60 partners and 1,500 staff in the Middle East region after a fallout with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

In February, the Big Four accountancy firm began to cut jobs after the fallout worsened an existing slowdown in demand for their services in the Middle East, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has banned PwC from consulting and advisory contracts for a year from February, Bloomberg had reported previously.

PwC kept its pay almost flat for partners at its UK and Middle East business as the consulting firm continued to weather a challenging environment, reported Bloomberg.

Partners at the unit of the Big-Four consulting firm were paid an average £865,000 ($1.18 million) in the year to June 30, just slightly up from £862,000 in the prior 12 months, Bloomberg reported citing the company’s annual report.

A slowdown in deals over the past few years has prompted the consulting services companies to cut costs.

In 2022, average partner pay at PwC topped £1 million just as an M&A boom aided by low interest rates was slowly starting to fizzle.

Some PwC partners in the UK and the Middle East were laid off in restructuring during the financial year.

PwC’s total revenue rose slightly to £6.35 billion in 2025, as compared to £6.33 billion in the previous year.

Its UK and Middle revenues were flat at £4.2 billion and £1.98 billion, respectively.

SoftBank Vision Fund mulls 20% job cuts

SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund is considering cutting as much as 20% of its staff, reported Bloomberg separately.

The unit, which employed about 282 people as of the end of March, may shed more than 50 roles, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing private deliberations.

The reduction extends years of cutbacks as the Vision Fund unit shrank in importance next to Masayoshi Son’s growing appetite for big artificial intelligence bets.

Those include a plan to invest about $30 billion in OpenAI and a $6.5 billion deal to acquire chip designer Ampere Computing, which faces regulatory scrutiny. SoftBank has so far invested roughly $10 billion in OpenAI.