BDO USA once again took the top spot among major firms in our quarterly ranking of new Securities and Exchange Commission audit clients, this time with a whopping 36 net new clients -- the result, largely, of a number of major mergers the firm completed over the summer.
In late June, the Chicago-based firm, which ranks No. 8 on Accounting Today’s Top 100 Firms list, announced three major additions, bringing on board Alaska-based Mikunda, Cottrell & Co., Minneapolis-based Moquist Thorvilson Kaufmann LLC, and a number of members of the banking practice of Northeast Top 100 Firm ParenteBeard. The mergers, which were all effective July 1, were expected to bring the firm to around $800 million in revenue, and also gave it a huge bump in SEC clients. The group from ParenteBeard brought in over 20 new clients alone -- all, obviously, banks and other financial institutions.
Among the other major firms (see
Other big grabs during the quarter included PwC signing up payroll company Paychex Inc. (with a market cap of $13.5 billion), and KPMG picking up clothing and housewares retailer Stein Mart Inc. ($1.2 billion).
BEYOND THE BIG FIRMS
BDO’s acquisitions certainly helped push it to the top of this quarter’s rankings, but M&A, as always, also played a role in shaping our ranking of audit firms by overall new clients (see
At the same time, though, both Pennsylvania-based KLJ & Associates and Salt Lake City-based Sadler Gibb & Associates benefited from a rush of new engagements after Alameda, Calif., auditor Sam Kan & Co. began telling clients that it would no longer serve public companies.