THE sudden disappearance of PKF from Perth has had unexpected flow-on effects in the market beyond the audit and tax expertise where the mid-tier accounting firm had a solid business base.
THE sudden disappearance of PKF from Perth has had unexpected flow-on effects in the market beyond the audit and tax expertise where the mid-tier accounting firm had a solid business base.
Residential building giant BGC is one local business that has felt a certain amount of upheaval as a result of PKF’s audit practice of three partners and 30 staff moving across to join Deloitte right at the critical time for company audits at the end of the financial year.
While Len Buckeridge’s BGC was probably the most prestigious of the clients left scrambling to shore up the services of an auditor, that was not the only issue caused by the break-up of PKF’s Perth partnership.
PKF was also a major lessee at the 15-level BGC Centre, an agreement understood to have been linked to the building company’s decision to give it the audit work.
However, shortly after the audit team quit to join Deloitte, the remainder of PKF’s business defected to BDO, leaving the seventh floor space on the BGC Centre vacant for some weeks.
It is understood the lease was held by a shelf company that has frustrated BGC’s building management and left it negotiating with a major tenant to take up the space left vacant by PKF.
The building giant has retained Deloitte as its auditor.
Meanwhile, it is difficult to determine exactly how many other audit clients transferred their business across to Deloitte.
Deloitte audit group leader Tim Richards said he was reluctant to discuss client details, especially as many of those who had chosen to use his firm’s audit services would require the decision to be ratified at their next annual meeting.
However, Mr Richards said that, given the time constraints involved, many of the former PKF clients opted to use Deloitte and most of those proposed staying with the firm beyond this most recent audit.
“From my perspective those guys joining us and their team joining us has been very successful,” he said.
Deloitte’s audit practice has expanded to 10 partners and 105 staff, a level that puts it third in the market behind Ernst & Young and PwC.
Among the other audit accounts that appear to have shifted across to Deloitte from PKF are motor scooter producer Vmoto and minerals group Breakaway Resources.
In more recent news from the mid-tier accounting world, Perth-based accounting firm Sygnum Financial Services is to become part of national firm Hayes Knight.
Since founding Sygnum, CEO Bruce Sinclair and director Simon Everett have taken 22 staff into the Hayes Knight fold.
Hayes Knight has not been represented in WA since March when the then Osborne Park-based practice, led by Alan Thomas, sold into the WHK Howarth business headed up by Geoff Kidd.
Mr Sinclair said he believed his West Perth practice was broader than the previous Hayes Knight representation and would better fit into the national group’s business model.
One of the areas that the group planned to focus on was winning national audit work.
“We now have a genuine national presence for audit, so part of our brief is to pick up some of that national work,” Mr Sinclair said.
