Issa 'nother one
Spy noted with interest the reporting over the weekend that EY had resigned as auditor for Asda.
That would make it the second time in 2023 the Issa Brothers lost a big-four accounting firm after KPMG’s resignation from Leon – and the third big-four firm to have resigned from parts of the billionaire brothers’ sprawling empire after Deloitte quit in 2020.
So who is replacing them? Spy did some digging on the brothers’ glamorous new audit appointment at Leon, a firm known as PM+M.
Where are they based? Unlike EY and KMPG, PM+M is not run out of a shiny skyscraper in Canary Wharf, wedged between investment banks and asset managers. Instead, it is headquartered in a business park just off the A6119 in Blackburn.
It’s just up the way from a firm called ‘Lancashire Confidential Shredding’ – a handy spot for the Issas to tear up those old big-four contracts.
What expertise do they have? On their testimonials page, PM+M say they helped a local Christian heritage charity in “that had lost confidence in the financial information being produced”, assisted “Mr and Mrs Smith” with their retirement planning and offered financial advice to “Dave the business owner” to help him exit the company.
How big are they? It’s fair to say they’re a little smaller than the quarter of a million employee KPMG.
Ironically, unlike £80m turnover Leon, Companies House filings show PM+M Ltd’s revenues are small enough to warrant an audit exemption.
City Spy is back!
Sign up to our brand new weekly newsletter for your unmissable round-up of all the gossip, rumours, and covert goings-on inside the Square Mile: standard.co.uk/newsletters
