Big 6 audit firms cover two-thirds of Nifty 500 audits in FY25

The audit fee paid out by companies, listed on NSE on a standalone basis, was ₹1,903 crore in FY24, an increase of 9.24 per cent from the previous financial year. 

Two out of every three audits of Nifty 500 companies were done by the Big 6 audit firms — BDO, Deloitte, EY, Grant Thornton, KPMG and PwC — in FY25.

These firms handled 326 assignments of 483 Nifty 500 companies, data from primeinfobase.com showed. Overall, these firms handled 694 assignments of 2,069 companies, or 34 per cent of the total companies listed on the NSE, a slight increase from 32 per cent in 2023-24.

The top 10 audit firms audited 803 companies or 39 per cent of the total. Leading the league table was EY with 176 companies, followed by KPMG (137) and Deloitte (128). There were 22 audit firms which audited 10 or more listed companies. In terms of market capitalisation of companies audited, Deloitte (16.2 per cent), EY (15.8 per cent) and KPMG (15.4 per cent) emerged as leaders.

In total, 862 audit firms audited these 2,069 companies. This implies that, on an average, an audit firm audited 2.4 companies in FY25, up from 2.27 companies in FY24 and 1.87 in FY14, showcasing the ongoing consolidation in the audit space.

The number of companies with joint auditors rose slightly to 157, or 7 per cent of the total.

The audit fee paid out by companies, listed on NSE on a standalone basis, was ₹1,903 crore in FY24, an increase of 9.24 per cent from the previous financial year. The average audit fee was ₹0.97 crore per company, with the global Big 4 cornering a 29 per cent share of audit fee, on standalone basis, in FY24.

Published on May 4, 2025