Baker Tilly tops Q4 SEC auditor engagements

Baker Tilly brought on by far the most new Securities and Exchange Commission audit clients in the fourth quarter of 2020, thanks to a major merger.

The Top 15 Firm’s November merger with Top 100 Firm Squar Milner added a total of 31 new SEC registrants as audit clients; the firm ended up netting 29, which was far more than its nearest competitor. (See “Net engagement leaders.”)

The overall volume of new engagements rose from a low of 94 in Q3 to 111 in Q4, but was still well below the totals seen in the first half of the year. (See “Client gains & losses”)

Clients by filing status, and more

Bringing on a big cohort of Squar Milner clients helped Baker Tilly dominate the league tables for new smaller reporting company clients and new non-accelerated filers; there were relatively low volumes of new engagements in the other categories. (See “Audit leaders.”)

Baker Tilly wasn’t the only auditor to bring on a number of clients from the same predecessor firm: JP Centurion & Partners added four new clients by merging in the audit operations of Total Asia Associates, while TPS Thayer’s four new engagements all came from Thayer O’Neal Co. The similar names are not a coincident: Thayer O’Neal created a new entity with a new name.

In terms of new market capitalization and new assets audited, and new audit fees, Deloitte topped the tables in the fourth quarter, largely due to two major new clients: food services and uniform provider Aramark, with an assist by Madison Square Garden Sports Corp., the holding company for a number of New York-area sports teams, including the New York Knicks and the Rangers (Deloitte also picked up related cable TV network MSG Networks Inc.). Aramark accounted for $6.69 billion of Deloitte’s $10.2 billion in new market cap, $15.7 billion of the firm’s $18.46 billion in new assets audited, and $7.23 million of its $11.18 million in new audit fees; Madison Square Garden Sports added $2.2 billion, $1.2 billion and $1.9 million in each area, respectively. (See “New client leaders.”)

Baker Tilly came in second in each category, thanks to its vast number of new engagements, all of which were relatively small: Only one client brought over $1 billion in market cap (cancer-focused pharmaceutical company Odonate Therapeutics, with $1.03 billion), and only two had over a billion in assets (commercial bank BankGuam Holdings, with $1.95 billion, and residential mortgage lender Impac Mortgage Holdings, with $3.55 billion). None were over a million dollars in audit fees.

Data for the quarterly rankings are provided by Audit Analytics, a premium online intelligence service delivering audit, regulatory and disclosure analysis. Reach them at (508) 476-7007, info@auditanalytics.com or www.auditanalytics.com.