BDO Leads in Q3 New SEC Clients

Top 6 Firm BDO USA brought on 15 new Securities and Exchange Commission audit clients in the third quarter, leading the auditor pack, while Hong Kong’s DCAW (CPA) Ltd. netted the most, with nine.

BDO’s new clients came from a mix of organic and merger-driven growth: Seven of its new clients came from its May merger with Utah’s Mantyla McReynolds, and two from its August merger with South Florida’s Goldstein Schechter Koch, while the remaining eight came over individually from a scattering of other firms. BDO netted eight new firms altogether in the third quarter, putting it tops among large firms (see “Q3 Client Gains & Losses”).

DCAW, meanwhile, brought on 11 new clients and netted nine, the most of any firm in the quarter (see “Net Engagement Leaders”). Seven of those new clients came from fellow Hong Kong firm Crowe Horwath HK (CPA) Ltd., which started telling its audit clients in September that it would no longer offer audit services to U.S.-regulated public companies. The other four came from a variety of firms in Hong Kong and the U.S.

BDO and DCAW also led most of our tables by type of filer: The former topped the ranks of new accelerated filers and new smaller reporting companies, and the latter led among non-accelerated filers. Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers topped the list for large accelerated filers (see “Audit Leaders”).

PwC also led the way in new market capitalization and assets audited, and new audit fees, thanks, primarily, to the addition of two new clients: power company American Electric Power Co. (with $28.6 billion in market cap, $61.6 billion in assets, and audit fees of $11 million), and energy management and control technologies creator Johnson Controls International (with $14 billion in market cap, $12.3 billion in assets, and $15.9 million in audit fees) (see “New Client Leaders”).

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.