Our friends at Audit Analytics just released their analysis of the initial public offering auditor market share for the fourth quarter of 2019. But before we look at Q4’s results, let’s quickly review the previous three quarters’ IPO audit engagement leaders:
- Q1: Marcum 8 ($896 million raised)
- Q2: Deloitte 17 ($7.87 billion raised)
- Q3: EY 11 ($3.66 billion raised)
One of these three firms led the fourth quarter in IPO audit clients.
There were 59 IPOs in the U.S. between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2019, raising more than $8.7 billion, a decrease of over $800 million from the same period last year and a decrease of more than $4 billion from Q3, according to Audit Analytics.
Overall, there were 231 U.S. companies that went public last year, raising more than $63 billion in funds—the second-highest amount in terms of amount raised and IPO count in the past five years, which is kinda remarkable given the real slow start to 2019’s activity.
Not remarkable surprising is that Big 4 firms audited 27 IPOs (45.8% of the market) in the fourth quarter and 126 IPOs (54.5% of the market) for 2019, according to Audit Analytics. PwC audited the top IPO last year—Uber Technologies.
But it wasn’t Deloitte or EY or PwC that had the most audit engagements in Q4. Congrats, Marcum.
And Marcum had the second-most IPO clients in 2019.
So not only did Marcum outduel the Big 4 in IPO audit engagements in two of the four quarters of 2019, but the Big 4’s IPO market share was the lowest it has been in the past six years, with a high of about 76% in 2014.
What a time to be alive.
Related articles:
Which Firm Topped the Big 4 in IPO Audits in Q1 of 2019?
This Big 4 Firm Had the Most IPO Audit Clients In Q2 2019
Which Big 4 Firm Had the Most IPO Audit Clients In Q3 2019?
