BDO bought out Grant Thornton’s offices in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth in February 2018. The merger will create a firm of 1,500 partners and staff across seven offices in South Africa. This includes Grant Thornton’s Johannesburg office, with almost 900 partners and staff.
BDO’s South Africa CEO Mark Stewart described the deal as providing a “credible alternative to the four largest auditing firms”. The merger comes just as KPMG is axing 400 jobs and closing offices in the country. The Big 4 firm has been haemorrhaging clients since it was engulfed in a scandal over its audits of companies owned by the Gupta brothers.
