If you’ve been a regular reader of our quarterly Auditor Changes roundups, then it should come as no surprise when we say that the first quarter of 2015 was another good one for BDO. The global audit firm took first place among the largest global and national firms in terms of SEC client gains during the quarter with a net win of 10 new clients, continuing a long string of strong performances.
As Daniel Hood wrote recently in Accounting Today, BDO is in the midst of a years-long growth strategy, which has frequently involved the addition of new clients via mergers and acquisitions. The firm’s increase over this past quarter, however, was due to organic growth.
As with last quarter, the table below presents a comprehensive view of the gains and losses of the major global and national firms. It shows how many SEC audit clients each auditor gained or lost, and also the auditor from or to which the client was either won or lost.
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In the following tables, we disaggregate the auditor changes by the size of the companies gained or lost, as represented by the companies’ filing status. The first table shows auditor changes for Large Accelerated Filers, i.e., those with a worldwide public float of more than $700 million.
Yount Hyde & Barbour PC, the Virginia-based member of the Leading Edge Alliance, stands out as the smallest of the firms to lose a Large Accelerated Filer during the quarter. The loss, Union Bancshares (UBSH), just recently transitioned from an Accelerated Filer to a Large Accelerated Filer, per its Fiscal 2014 10-K, and engaged Ernst & Young as its new auditor. The Big Four have about 93% market share among Large Accelerated Filers, so the change isn’t surprising.
The next table presents wins and losses for Accelerated Filers, which are companies with public float between $75 million and $700 million.
Finally, the last table presents the top five gains and losses for Smaller Reporting Companies.
RBSM had a net increase of 36, to go along with the net decrease of 38 for LL Bradford, thanks to the merger of these two firms. The Hall Group lost 5 Smaller Reporting Companies on account of losing its PCAOB registration, and most of those clients went to MaloneBailey.
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