Forever yours: 12 companies that kept auditors unchanged for 15-50 years

Money Control :Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 12:41

If the new Companies Bill gets passed in Parlaiment, it will make rotation of auditors mandatory for companies. The draft bill advocates rotation after five years with the flexibility to extend it to ten, after which there will be a mandatory cooling off for five years. Currently, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) prescribes auditor rotation every five years but the guidelines are non-binding in nature and most private sector companies disregard them.

While analysing auditors' lifespan in companies, Institutional investor advisory Services looked into 286 listed entities and found only 131 companies, comprising mostly banks, were conforming to the MCA guidelines.



Moneycontrol brings to you top 12 companies which have kept auditors unchanged for a period ranging decade-and-a-half  to half-a-century.

1  .Company: Hindalco Industries

Auditor/Audit Network: Singhi and Co

Tenure (years): >50

2   .Company: Reliance Industries

Auditor/Audit Network: Chaturvedi and Shah, Rajendra and Co., Deloitte *

Tenure (years): >35

*Deloitte has been an auditor since 2005

3   .Company: Larsen & Toubro

Auditor/Audit Network: Sharp and Tannan

Tenure (years): >30

4   .Company: Grasim Industries

Auditor/Audit Network: GP Kapadia and Co; Deloitte (joint statutory auditor since 2009)

Tenure (years): >20

5   .Company: Jaiprakash Associates

Auditor/Audit Network: MP Singh & Associates

Tenure (years): >25


6   .Company: Tata Power

Auditor/Audit Network: Deloitte / AF Ferguson & Co

Tenure (years): >15


7   .Company: Maruti Suzuki

Auditor/Audit Network: PWC

Tenure (years): >15

8   .Company: Hero MotoCorp

Auditor/Audit Network: AF Ferguson and Co

Tenure (years): >15

9   .Company: Jindal Steel

Auditor/Audit Network: SS Kothari Mehta and Co

Tenure (years): >15

10   .Company: Tata Steel

Auditor/Audit Network: Deloitte / A F Ferguson & Co

Tenure (years): >15

11  .Company: Tata Motors

Auditor/Audit Network: Deloitte / A F Ferguson & Co

Tenure (years): >15

12  .Company: Infosys

Auditor/Audit Network: BSR and Co

Tenure (years): >14