Grant Thornton, Marcum tie for new Q3 audit clients

Grant Thornton and Marcum tied at the top of the league tables for new Securities and Exchange Commission audit clients in the third quarter of 2020.

Both firms brought on four new engagements, and netted three each. A handful of firms actually added more new clients (including Ernst & Young with six, and Deloitte and BF Borgers with five), but netted fewer. (See “Net engagement leaders.”)

Overall, the quarter saw the lowest volume of new engagements for the year, with 94 in Q3, against 125 in Q2 and 147 in Q1. It was also off from the same quarter a year ago; audit firms reported 124 new clients in Q3 2019, suggesting that the slowdown in turnover may be connected to the coronavirus pandemic, which began to spike nationwide toward the end of Q3. (See “Client gains & losses.”)

Clients by filing status, and more

With the relatively low volume of auditor changes in the quarter, no single firm dominated in any of the categories of filing types. (See “Audit leaders.”)

PricewaterhouseCoopers, which signed up four audit clients, led the lists in terms of new market capitalization audited, new assets audited and new audit fees thanks to a single client: makeup giant Estee Lauder Companies, which accounted for all $43.06 billion of the Big Four firm’s new market cap, $17.78 billion of its $20.14 billion in new assets audited, and $10.86 million of its $11.15 million in new audit fees. (See “New client leaders.”)

Deloitte came in second in new market cap, with $4.28 billion; California-based water utility SJW Group accounted for the biggest slice of that, at $1.98 billion. The company also helped Deloitte to second place in terms of assets audited, representing $3.13 billion out of a total $5.70 billion.

Meanwhile, Ernst & Young took second in terms of new audit fees, thanks to healthy contributions from a number of new clients, with the $3.60 million from California-based network infrastructure company Extreme Networks Inc. the standout.

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.