PCAOB Inspection of Deloitte Audit – 20% Error Rate??

In its first inspection report of a Big Four firm in the year 2010, the PCAOB just released its 2009 inspection report of Deloitte & Touche LLP, finding quite a high percentage of errors in the sample of audits selected to be reviewed....

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

PricewaterhouseCoopers And Satyam: Recent Twists and Turns

We have blogged earlier about PricewaterhouseCoopers, the official auditors of Satyam, the Indian IT firm, scalded by the scam perpetrated by its Chairman Ramalinga Raju. Since then, Satyam has been bought by Tech Mahindra and Deloitte has been hired as the new statutory auditors. All this has happened in a space of one year, with Ramalinga Raju being arrested on January 9, 2009, he is reportedly in the hospital now, though his brother and the Satyam CFO and other key officials are still imprisoned...

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com! 

KPMG 2009 Revenues of $20 B Drop 11%, Most Among Big Four Firms

KPMG just reported its 2009 combined revenues for the fiscal year ending 30 September 2009 of US$20.11 billion versus US$22.69 billion for the prior 2008 fiscal year. This was a 11.4% decline in U.S. dollars terms and a 2.6% decline in local currency terms...

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

KPMG Europe Revenues Drop 0.4% As Expected, Audit Shines

KPMG Europe LLP, which covers the UK, German, Swiss, Spanish and Belgian practices just reported its 2009 revenues at €3.5 billion in the year ending 30 September 2009, a 0.4% drop from 2008 on a pro forma basis at constant exchange rates. Overall, KPMG said that top-line growth proved hard to come by as a result of difficult market conditions...

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

Deloitte Revenues Grow 1% Local Currency, Now Just Behind PricewaterhouseCoopers

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, the global firm, just came out with its fiscal 2009 revenues for the year ending May 31, 2009. 2009 full year global revenue was US$26.1 billion, an actual increase in local currency terms of 1%, but a drop of 4.9% in US dollar terms from 2008. The tough economic climate and appreciating US dollar were the two main factors in 2009 which impacted Deloitte as much as it did other Big Four firms...

We’ve moved. Click here to go the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

SEC’s Strategic Plan Seen to Support IFRS Transition and PCAOB

The Securities and Exchange Commission just released its 2010-2015 Strategic Plan with some broad objectives to focus on securities compliance fostering and enforcement. The US SEC has been under considerable attack since it missed one of the world’s largest $60 billion Ponzi schemes operated by Bernard Madoff. Apparently, there were five particular instances over the years where the SEC could have caught Madoff had they pursued either their own processes or followed through on tips provided to them. Refocusing on enforcement is clearly goal number one...

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

Ernst and Young UK Reports Excellent Results, Beating Rival Big Four Firms

The Times of London just came out yesterday with Ernst & Young’s UK results (surprisingly, we couldn’t find it on the E&Y UK website)...


We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

Police Raid Ernst & Young HK Office in Akai Case

We highlight a breaking news story happening on the other side of the world, in Hong Kong the police yesterday raided the offices of Ernst & Young, the erstwhile auditors of Akai. Akai was the largest corporate collapse in Hong Kong, with similarities to the Enron case in the United States. This story is making current headlines in the small city state, making the first page of the influential South China Morning Post and also reported on Bloomberg Asia and Bloomberg.com’s home page today. 

We’ve moved. Click here to go the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

KPMG: Tax Authorities, Looking For Cash, May Push Transfer Pricing To Front Burner

Transfer Pricing (TP), or the setting of intercompany prices of goods and services transported across country borders by the same company is typically an esoteric tax issue which garners little attention under normal conditions. But as KPMG recently points out in its recently released Global Transfer Pricing Review, the tough economic environment is leading many governments to seek out new sources of tax by extending and tightening controls over cross-border transactions between companies within the same group.

We’ve moved. Click here to go the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

PricewaterhouseCoopers Issues Statement, Change from Previous Stance

The Satyam Scam Saga continues, and much as we like to step away to other matters, there continues to be interesting new developments which catch our attention.

Now The Economic Times of India reports that PricewaterhouseCoopers sent a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange and to the newly-constituted board of Satyam Computers, saying, “The former chairman has stated that the financial statements of the company have been inaccurate for successive years. The contents of the said letter, even if partially accurate, may have a material effect (which is currently unknown and cannot be quantified without thorough investigations) on the veracity of the company’s financial statements presented to us during the audit period. Consequently, our opinions on the financial statements may be rendered inaccurate and unreliable.”

We’ve moved. Click here to go the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

Big Four Firms Combined Revenues Top $100B, Employment Nearly 600,000!

With KPMG being the last firm to reports its 2008 performance, we can now complete the full financial picture for all the Big Four firms in 2008. The five years from 2004 to 2008 have been some of the best growth years for these firms. In a strong economic environment, with rapid development in the BRIC nations and solid growth in emerging markets, the Big Four firms capitalized on demand for global financial and accounting services to boost their top line and posting a string of back-to-back record performances. Their worldwide reach and ability to offer complex seamless and multi-country services, coupled with need for name-brand public accountants enabled them to grow all their service lines, especially Audit boosted by Sarbanes Oxley regulations in the United States. Growth in Brazil, Russia, India and China was reported at nearly 30+ % each year, as these economies expressed their latent need for professional services.

We’ve moved. Click here to go the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

Deloitte and Touche: Revs up 16% to $23 Billion

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (Deloitte) recently reported revenues were up by 15.5% to US$23.1 billion for the fiscal year ended 31 May 2007. This is the firm's fifth consecutive year of double-digit revenue growth with each service line and region increasing at double-digit rates...

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP UK turnover up 6%, profits grow 11%

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP United Kingdom recently reported a 6% increase for FY 2007 turnover to £2.1 billion. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP FY07 financial year runs from 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2007.

Of this:

• Assurance increased 4% to £947 million (core audit services grew 8%)
• Tax turnover sped up 13% to £667 million
• Turnover in Advisory grew moderately at 4% to £493 million (Performance Improvement Consulting grew by 8%. Net revenue growth in Corporate Finance was 12%)
• Revenue at Business Recovery Services unit (aka bankruptcy consulting) declined due to good economic conditions

Underlying net revenue increased 9% and underlying profit shot up 11% to £631 million from £586 million in 2006.

Average profit per partner rose 6% to £757,000, with partner numbers up to 822. 56 new partners were admitted on 1 July 2007, with 15 new partners recruited externally during the course of FY07.

Note that turnover includes expenses and disbursements associated with client assignments; and underlying net revenue excludes these items.
Recently we blogged that Deloitte UK reported even stronger results: Sales were up 16% and profits payable to partners were up 17%, profit per partner was £877,00. Deloitte UK has now turnover of £1.8 billion and profits of £572 million and 652 partners.

It appears that Deloitte UK is growing both the top and bottom lines much faster than PwC UK; we don’t have enough reported information to really analyze why this differential exists.

But if this is indicative of global results which are to come shortly, it may not be long before Deloitte beats PwC in revenue as Deloitte posts high double-digits revenue gains versus high single-digits revenue growth for PwC. We shall see in November 2007!

http://www.ukmediacentre.pwc.com/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=2448&NewsAreaID=2

Deloitte UK Revenues Up 16%, Profit Soars 17%

Deloitte UK recently posted results, audit firms in the UK need to publish financials, unlike their counterparts in the US

Nonetheless, these profits are quite healthy and pleasant to disclose:

For the year ending May 31, 2007 profits available for distribution to partners and retired partners was £572 million, up 17% from previous year; and revenues grew to £1,802 million, up 15.6%...

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

PricewaterhouseCoopers Values Mr. Ban Ki-Moon's Assets

A few days ago, we blogged that PricewaterhouseCoopers would be auditing the financial assets of United Nations Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon in a history-setting move to disclose such information publicly. The results are out now...


We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

PCAOB Raps Ernst and Young, KPMG With Audit Issues

On January 11, 2007, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board released its reports on the audit inspections in 2004 for Ernst & Young LLP and KPMG LLP. Both firms got rapped for inconsistencies in audits in failing to fully comply with all the specifics of GAAP or not gathering enough support information to support their findings.

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!