Accounting Today has shared Audit Analytics data on the Q4 2013 auditor shuffle and of large and national firms, Marcum came out on top with a net gain of five. I'm no mathlete but that's a whole… er… well it's more than EY's -6 net:
Big Four firm KPMG and McGladrey followed up with net gains of three clients each for the period (See “Q4 2013 Client Gains & Losses”). KPMG also pulled off a trifecta in other measures, topping the lists for new market cap audited, new assets audited and new audit fees (See “New Client Leaders”). It was helped there in particular by signing up box manufacturer Packaging Corp. of America (with a market capitalization of $6.2 billion) and lab instrument manufacturer Bio Rad Laboratories (with a market cap of $3 billion). PricewaterhouseCoopers came in second in terms of market cap audited on the strength of a single new engagement — semiconductor manufacturer Cree Inc. (with a market cap of $7.5 billion).
Accounting Today fails to mention in the article (though it can be found in the Q4 2013 Client Gains & Losses graphic) that EY lost five audit clients to other Big 4 firms (three to KPMG), one to a national and one to a regional, gaining just one audit client from PwC. KPMG offset the loss of four clients to national firms by picking up seven clients from other Big 4 firms.
Nice work, KPMG!
Britain’s top accountants are to have their own books scrutinised after the consumer watchdog referred the business of checking companies’ figures for a full-scale competition inquiry. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said it had been concerned for some time that the audit market is highly concentrated with low levels of switching and substantial barriers to entry. The watchdog estimates that in 2010 the “big four” firms, PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and Ernst & Young, earned 99% of audit fees paid by FTSE 100 companies, while between 2002 and 2010 only 2.3% of FTSE 100 firms changed their auditor. [