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10 years of auditing in DAX 30

Data provides information about fees, auditing companies and the people who audit Germany's largest companies.

Click through our interactive data analyses

Each data point on a graphic contains further information. Click on each element or hover over it with your mouse. Ah, we are designed especially for tablets. Swipe and Touch!

Dax audit market

Which auditing company has the biggest slice of the pie?

Dax audit fees en

What fees are paid by which companies, and to whom?

Dax audit auditors

Which auditors perform audits for Dax companies as individuals?

Our analyses are based on companies' 2007-2016 annual reports (DAX 30, 18/03/18). We update the data and expand the analyses.

Bull klick
10 years of auditing in DAX 30
Overview of the entire market
Chapter 1 of 3

Klaus Becker, CEO of KPMG AG, has signed a whopping 28 auditor's reports in 10 years alone within the DAX 30. How does this work?

In the past 10 years in Germany, the market for the prestigious and fee-generating DAX 30 companies has been divided between only three of the so-called "Big Four" auditing companies. Compared to KPMG, EY (Ernst & Young) and PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), Deloitte has been under-represented in the German market until now.

However, with the legal provision regarding rotation having recently entered into force, under the terms of which a new mandate must be issued after 10 years, the make-up of the market is set to change. In 2017, Deloitte was able to be part of the action once again by carrying out the audit for Bayer AG.

While traditional reporting covers shifts in positions, this data project delves deeper and allows the user to come to their own conclusions. Interact through the three chapters of this data story. Ask questions of the data, such as:

What auditing fees are actually paid by which companies and how big is the market overall?

Which auditors perform audits for DAX, what experience does the company have, who needs to swap out after 7 years, who can jump in?

What percentage of the overall fee is accounted for by tax services and how much is generated abroad?

We are continuing to update and develop this project. Please share any questions you may have with us.

Database: 2007-2016 annual reports, DAX 30 (18/03/18)
1) Transparency report 2017
10 years of auditing in DAX 30
Auditing fees. What do the DAX companies pay?
Chapter 2 of 3
Database: 2007-2016 annual reports, DAX 30 (18/03/18), own calculations
Börsennotierte Unternehmen sind verpflichtet, in ihren Geschäftsberichten die Honorare auszuweisen, die sie für die Wirtschaftsprüfung aufgewendet haben. Keine einheitliche Regelung existiert hierbei, ob die Honorare nur für die deutsche Muttergesellschaft oder für alle Konzerngesellschaften weltweit ausgewiesen werden müssen. Die Mehrheit der Gesellschaften machen vollständige Angaben getrennt nach Aufwendungen für die deutsche Muttergesellschaft (hier Inland) und die weltweiten Konzerngesellschaften (hier: Global). Einige Unternehmen beschränken sich allerdings auf die Angabe der deutschen Muttergesellschaft. Hier wurden branchenbezogene Mittelwerte berechnet und als Multiples für die inländischen Honorare angewendet. Die so ermittelten Schätzwerte geben so ein vollständiges und vergleichbares Bild über alle Gesellschaften.
10 years of auditing in DAX 30
Analyses of audit professionals: Experience, activities, rotation.
Chapter 3 of 3

Auditors with experience of auditing DAX companies

It is interesting to take a look at the individual professionals, namely the auditors. 4 Facts:

  1. Auditors practise a liberal profession and are publicly appointed. They are personally liable for their work. It is all the more important to commit to record the experience provided by responsible and quality-assuring auditors if they have already audited a large and complex business such as a DAX company or have signed the audit opinions of the company’s individual and group financial statements.
  2. In the last 10 years there have only been 11 women who have audited DAX companies, which only amounts to less than 10 percent of the 114 DAX auditors.
  3. If an auditor has audited a company for a period of 7 years, he/she is then not allowed to audit the company for a waiting period of 3 years and must allow another auditor to assume this role.
  4. In most cases the auditor's report is signed by two auditors. Under current practice, one auditor is responsible for the work - generally the auditor signing on the right-hand side - and a second auditor (signing on the left-hand side), is involved in the execution of the work to the extent that they can confirm the results of the audit in addition to or by exclusively playing a quality-assurance role. It is often the case that the left-signing party is a member of top-level management of an auditing company, who is not generally responsible for carrying out audits within their own company. So it is no wonder that Klaus Becker, for instance, the head of KPMG AG, has been a leader in the area of auditing within DAX, having issued 28 auditor's reports since 2007.
Database: 2007-2016 annual reports, DAX 30 (18/03/18)