Plenty to Crowe about

THE LATEST RANKING of auditors by Hemscott provides a nice marketing opportunity for Crowe Clark Whitehill.

The Top 20 firm has muscled its way into Hemscott's elite ranking of FTSE 350/AIM auditors by number of clients.

Q3 2011 shows CCW have a net gain of eight audit clients, bumping the firm into ninth place, from 13.

It could well be argued that the move of five former Mazars partners to CCW are the key reason for this shift. Mazars, for the record, lost a net five clients during the quarter and moved from ten in the rankings to 11.

But the key will be how CCW moves forward. Are the gains a one-off?

Possibly. But I'm sure that CCW will think otherwise, and will use their new talent pool and expertise to drive more wins.

So how are Mazars? OK, if you look at the numbers. The firm argues that its market cap of clients has held up, and has new clients lined up.

Still, interesting to note that Mazars has hired PR giants Weber Shandwick to help push out some messages.

We've more to hear from both firms, no doubt about that.