BHP Billiton Appoints EY as its New External Auditor

Mining giant BHP Billiton has confirmed that Big Four Firm EY will take up its audit and in the process will replace rival firm KPMG as auditors BHP Billiton group.

The Australian-based mining group has a market value of approximately £80bn and it specializes in copper, iron ore, oil and gas, silver, lead, zinc, diamond and other natural resources. KPMG was paid £12.7m for the financial year ended June 30, 2016. The figure of £12.7m comprises of £8.1m paid in against of audit fees, £2.6m for audit-related services and £1.9m for non-audit related services.
BHP Billiton has appointed EY as their group auditor for the financial year commencing from July 1, 2019.

The head of audit at EY UK, Hywel Ball, said that our structure expanding all across the globe along with our experience in the sector enable us to provide advice to businesses of scale like BHP Billiton.   He further said that we are excited with regards to the opportunities this audit engagement would bring with it for our people all around the globe.

In the entity’s unaudited financial results for the financial period ended June 30, 2017, BHP Billiton stated that their current auditor KPMG did not participated in the tender for appointing the group auditor due to the regulations applicable in the EU and the UK which requires the dual-listed company to have a new auditor in office from July 1, 2023.

KPMG will continue to perform in its role as the company’s external auditor for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 fiscal years, only if it gets re-appointed by the company’s shareholders at AGM that will took place in 2017 and 2018.

EY is expected to replace KPMG for the financial year commencing July 1, 2019. In July of this year, EY also secured the external audit engagement of Tate and Lyle.