KPMG’s Aberdeen Asset Management audit up for grabs

ABERDEEN Asset Management will put its audit contract on the market in 2015, in a sign that Britain’s biggest companies are responding to pressure to break their cosy ties with the firms that vet their accounts.

The FTSE 100 fund manager said in its annual report that is considering ending its 30 year audit relationship with KPMG in order to comply with new recommendations in the corporate governance code that audits should be put out for tender every ten years.

“The audit committee has continuously reviewed the performance of the external auditors and has been satisfied on both the independence of KPMG and the rigour of their audit,” it said in its annual report.

The pace at which lucrative audits are coming to market has started to pick up with Vodafone, the UK’s second-largest listed company, putting its audit out to tender for the first time since its stock market listing in 1998.