KPMG stays top of auditor rankings list
Big Four continues to dominate listed company audits according to latest Adviser Rankings table
KPMG HAS HELD onto its top spot as auditor for stock market clients with 376 listed clients followed by PwC, Deloitte, EY and BDO respectively.
However, Mazars fell one place to 14 from 13 in the latest Adviser Rankings listing of audit clients. RSM Tenon fell to15th spot from 14, while Chantrey Vellacott DFK moved up to 12th from 14.
The ranking also looked at auditors in terms their AIM clients. This list saw BDO retain its first place ranking ahead of Grant Thornton, KPMG, PwC and Deloitte respectively. BDO overtook Grant Thornton to the top of the table in August this year. The mid-tier firm made a net gain of 24 clients in ten months, due to its merger with PKF.
KPMG had the most impressive gains in the latest ranking by pulling in seven extra AIM clients to hold onto their third spot ahead of PwC and Deloitte.
The FTSE 100 audit ranking table saw Deloitte fall to third place from second after it lost one client. PwC held onto first place although it lost three clients, KPMG held onto second after pulling in an extra client, EY stayed at fourth with 15 clients and BDO in fifth with one.
The ranking of the auditors for the largest listed companies could see radical changes in the coming years following the Competition Commission’s recommendations to reform the audit market. It has suggested that all listed firms put their audit out to tender every five years.
Since the commission’s announcement, HSBC has said it would swap its auditor from KPMG (which has had the role for 22 years) for PwC. Also, Unilever said it could drop its long-running auditor PwC for a when its term expires next year.
