Who Audits Public Companies – Italy 2021

For fiscal year 2021, the Big Four accounting firms continued to audit the majority of the market. Together, the Big Four firms share 97% of the market across Italy’s top 100 companies listed on the FTSE MIB and FTSE Italia Mid Cap indexes. This is a 1% decrease compared to 2020, reflecting BDOs slowly growing presence in Italy on the FTSE Italia Mid Cap index.

Italy’s auditor market share for the top 100 companies trading on the Borsa Italiana in 2021 looks similar to past years. However, the audit firm market share percentages for the Big Four have changed.

EY’s market share increased from 26% in 2020 to 30% in 2021. As a result, they are now the leading audit firm in market share. PwC, who led with the highest percentage for the past two years for the FTSE MIB and FTSE Italia Mid Cap engagements, now has the second largest market share. BDO, which audited two companies in this population last year, saw market share increase in 2021. Now, they have a total market share of 3%.

In total, there are five accounting firms that audit the top 100 companies listed on the Borsa Italiana. Here, we look at the auditor market share among Italy’s top two indexes: the FTSE MIB and the FTSE Italia Mid Cap.

2021 Auditor Market Share - Italy

FTSE MIB

FTSE MIB is the benchmark index. It consists of the top 40 companies trading on the Borsa Italiana. EY and PwC continue to hold the lead here, with 36% and 26% of the market share, respectively. In 2021, EY had an increase of 4%, while PwC declined by 1% compared to last year. However, PwC remained the second highest in market share. Deloitte fell by 3% from last year, accounting for 20% of the market share in 2021. KPMG closed out the Big Four with a total market share of 18%, an increase of 3% from 2020.

The most notable change from last year was that BDO lost its 3% share of the FTSE MIB — no longer holding any engagements on this index.

FTSE Italia Mid Cap

FTSE Italia Mid Cap is composed of the next 60 largest companies. Here, we see a growing deviation from the market share of the FTSE MIB by the Big Four. In this index, Deloitte is the leading audit firm with 27% of the market, compared to 25% in 2020 and 17% in 2019.

Additionally, PwC, last year’s FTSE Italia Mid Cap leader, is now ranked second out of the Big Four with a 26% market share. EY remained third, constituting 25% in 2021, a 3% growth from 2020. Meanwhile, KPMG closes out the Big Four with 17%. BDO comes last with 5% of the market share, an increase from 2% last year.


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