News
Big 6 audit firms strengthen dominance among India's top companies
Summary
- EY audited the most firms, followed by KPMG Group. On average, audit firms scrutinised 2.35 companies in FY24, up from 2.22 in FY23.
Most of India Inc’s biggest listed firms chose to work with the 'Big 6' audit companies in FY24. These audit firms—Deloitte, EY, Grant Thornton, KPMG, MSKA & Associates, and PwC—scrutinised two-thirds (66%) of the 483 Nifty 500 companies in FY24, up from 61% in the FY23, showed data from primeinfobase.com.
They handled 32.5% of all 1,961 NSE-listed companies in FY24, a slight increase from 32.1% of the 1,879 companies analysed in FY23. On average, each audit firm scrutinised 2.35 companies in FY24, up from 2.22 in FY23.
EY group led the pack, having audited 164 companies in FY24, up from 148 the previous year. It was followed by the KPMG group, which audited 141 companies, and the Deloitte group, which handled 119 assignments.
Deloitte audited companies with the highest combined average market capitalisation of ₹5.4 trillion in FY24, commanding a 17.1% share, followed by KPMG, which handled companies worth ₹5.3 trillion for a 17.1% share, and EY with a 15% share.
Together, the companies audited by these three firms accounted for nearly half of the total market value of NSE-listed firms, the data showed.
The accounting firms earned ₹1,738 crore from audit fees in FY23 (data for FY24 is not available) from NSE-listed firms, up 6.1% from FY22. Deloitte saw the biggest jump of over 20% among the Big 6, followed by KPMG at 11%, while EY witnessed a 2% drop.
As for companies that paid the highest fees, including both audit and non-audit services fees, 39 listed banks paid ₹925 crore (about 45% of the total) in FY23. Of these, 16 listed public-sector banks paid ₹857 crore, with State Bank of India alone contributing 29%. Reliance Industries paid the highest overall fees among non-banking companies in FY23.
