Plante Moran and Marcum top the charts in 2018 SEC audit clients

Mergers helped two Top 20 Firms, Plante Moran and Marcum, bring on board the most new Securities and Exchange Commission audit clients in 2018.

Plante Moran’s combination in October with Denver-based Top 100 Firm EKS&H brought on 31 of its 35 new audit clients for the year; the firm netted 34 total, putting it first in terms of net new engagements. (See the full “Net Engagement Leaders” table at the bottom of this article.)

Meanwhile, Marcum’s July merger with Houston-based GBH CPAs accounted for 28 new clients, which was almost all of its net 31, but just over half of the 52 new engagements it signed up in 2018 -- by far the most of any auditor and a performance that put it at the top of the list of major auditing firms. (See “2018 Clients Gains & Losses.”)

While Plante Moran led the list of new non-accelerated filers audited, and Marcum led among smaller non-accelerated filers, Big Four firm Deloitte had the most of both large accelerated filers and accelerated filers. With 37 new clients overall, and a net of 28, Deloitte came in just behind Marcum and Plante Moran – without any significant merger activity.

AUDIT LEADERS: Large accelerated filers
(Ranked by net gain)

AUDIT LEADERS: Accelerated filers
(Ranked by net gain)

AUDIT LEADERS: Non-accelerated filers
(Ranked by net gain)

AUDIT LEADERS: Small reporting companies
(Ranked by net gain)

Interestingly, Deloitte came second in terms of new market capitalization and new assets audited, as well as new audit fees – Ernst & Young came in first in all three of those categories, thanks largely to being named auditor to Big Three automaker General Motors, which accounted for $59.4 billion of its $99 billion in new market cap, $212.5 billion of its $277 billion in new assets, and $26 million of its $63 million in new fees.

NEW CLIENT LEADERS: By market capitalization

Of Deloitte’s $64.8 billion in new market cap audited, the largest chunk from industrial gas manufacturers Air Products & Chemicals Inc., with $34.4 billion; of its $256 billion in new assets, $49.3 billion came from commercial and consumer lender CIT Group, $25.7 billion from savings institution Umpqua holdings, and $19.1 billion from Air Products & Chemicals. CIT Group also made up $12.6 million of Deloitte’s $58 million in new fees, while Air Products & Chemicals added $6.8 million.

NEW CLIENT LEADERS: By assets audited

NEW CLIENT LEADERS: By audit fees

Mergers matter

As it did in 2017, M&A had a major impact on how many new audit clients firms were able to bring on. Besides Plante Moran and Marcum, a number of the leading firms boosted their totals through mergers, including:

• Top 100 Firm Prager Metis added 25 of its net and total 27 clients through its October merger with Hackensack, N.J.-based Paritz & Co.
• Utah’s Haynie & Co. merged in January with local firm Pritchett, Siler & Hardy, which gave it 18 of its 24 total new engagements.
• Utah-based Heaton & Co. benefitted from the combination of Haynie and Pritchett Siler, taking on 19 new clients that used to be audited by the latter.

Data for the 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.

OVERALL NET ENGAGEMENT LEADERS

Ranked by net engagements; ties are broken by the number of new engagements, then by alphabetical order. † New engagements include significant gains from the same previous auditor, often an indication of a merger or other change in firm structure, or that some of the new engagements have a corporate affiliation, as with Plante Moran’s merger with Denver-based Top 100 Firm EKS&H.