The top audit firms have cemented their position in FY25 with India Inc preferring to get their audit work done by Big 6 firms like Deloitte, EY, Grant Thornton, KPMG, BDO, and PwC. Analysis shows that top six audit firms handled 326 assignments of the 483 Nifty-500 companies as on March 2025. Their dominance has continued from FY24 when they also audited 67% of the Nifty 500 universe, according to primeinfobase.com.
In terms of all companies whose equity shares were listed on NSE (main board), the Big 6 audit firms handled 694 assignments of 2,069 companies (for which auditor details were available for FY25), or 34% of the total assignments, which was marginal higher (32%) than FY24.
According to primeinfobase.com, on an average, an audit firm audited 2.4 companies in FY25, up from 2.27 companies in FY24 and from 1.87 in FY14, highlighting the ongoing consolidation in the audit space. Further, there were 22 firms which audited 10 or more listed companies. While on the other end, there were as many as 608 audit firms which audited a single listed company.
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Also, the EY Group audited the most companies (176) in FY25 followed by KPMG Group (137) and Deloitte Group (128). In FY25, BDO Group replaced Price Waterhouse Group to claim a spot in the top 5 list.
Firms like Deloitte, EY and KPMG dominated the auditing space with assignments from heavyweight companies. For instance, these three firms collectively audited companies with 47% of the total market capitalisation of all companies whose equity shares were listed on NSE (main board) during FY25.
In FY25, the number of companies with joint auditors rose slightly to 157, which was slightly higher than 154 companies who had joint auditors. In India, it is mandatory for public sector undertakings, insurance companies and financial institutions with assets of more than Rs 15,000 crore to undertake joint audits where two or more auditors are appointed to conduct an audit and share responsibility.
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