Once again, BDO led the way in new SEC engagement wins among the large audit firms. In the third quarter of 2015, BDO added 13 new clients against a loss of five, for a net gain of eight. Added to the firm’s net win of nine clients from last quarter and 10 from the first quarter of 2015, BDO has a net gain of 27 clients so far in 2015.
This is the fourth quarter in a row that BDO took first place in new wins; and, going back to 2013, there’s only been one quarter where the Global Six firm wasn’t at the top.
This impressive streak comes from a combination of organic- and merger-based growth. During the present quarter, a sizable portion of the firm’s growth came from its acquisition of Cross Fernandez & Riley in Central Florida. But BDO also gained a number of clients from the Big Four and other national firms.
The other big winner in the quarter was Deloitte, which added 10 new clients and lost only three, for a net gain of seven; six of which came from other Big Four firms.
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.
There weren’t many changes among Large Accelerated Filers. Deloitte had the largest increase, with a net gain of two clients; while Ernst & Young lost four clients overall.
The next table presents wins and losses for Accelerated Filers, which are companies with public float between $75 million and $700 million.
BDO took top place in this category, with five wins to one loss for a net gain of four new Accelerated Filers.
Finally, the last table presents the top five gains and losses for Smaller Reporting Companies.
Stevenson & Company gained 12 Smaller Reporting Companies over the past quarter, which was enough to make them the overall leader in total new engagements. As noted by Daniel Hood of Accounting Today, the majority of its new clients came from DKM CPAs, which withdrew its PCAOB registration. We’ve noticed what appears to be an increase in the number of audit firms withdrawing from SEC audit work. (Look out for an upcoming post on this topic.) Notably, De Joya Griffith withdrew its registration with the PCAOB. The Nevada-based auditor gave up 17 Smaller Reporting Company clients this quarter, on top of seven in Q2.
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