Deloitte's Balfour Beatty audit tenure to be tested

DELOITTE’S tenure as auditor of Balfour Beatty is under risk, as the FTSE 250 builder will begin a tender process next year.

In the builder’s annual report, released today, it has outlined its decision to begin the audit tender process in the second half of 2015.

The UK corporate governance code suggests that the tender process should be put out no more than two years of the end of the current audit engagement partner’s departure, which would give Balfour Beatty until the end of 2017 to begin the process. However, it has decided the tender should coincide with the last year of the audit partner’s term.

Deloitte, which has served as auditor since 2003, earned £6.9m in fees from Balfour Beatty in the year ending 31 December 2013, of which £2.4m was for non-audit services.

The tender is the latest in what is expected to be a busy few years for the audit market, with listed companies revising their auditor incumbents following a regulatory drive to create more competition in the market.