Academic literature on the topic 'Audit market concentration'

The present study is intended to scholarly explore auditors’ perceptions regarding joint audits; whether it can improve audit quality. To reach this goal, participants were enrolled from Big 4, non-Big 4, and other stockholders. In addition, the present study examines the perception of the same stakeholders in terms of how audit concentration affects the audit market in the UAE. Being a qualitative study, 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect required data; 4 face to face and 8 through using Google forms. The finding of the study revealed mixed perception regarding joint audits; it may improve audit quality at the cost of high fees and free-rider problems. Findings of the study has practical implication for policymakers of emerging economies around the globe, such as policymakers who can make joint audits as compulsory. Another significance of the present work is that it has allowed for the perception of stakeholders, who are at the center of the controversial subject of joint audits and audit market concentration. The study suggests that there is a need for removing language barriers; it will benefit some firms in the form of directly communicating with auditors either in English or in Urdu.

SYNOPSIS Extant literature finds mixed evidence on the association between audit market concentration and audit fees. We re-examine this issue using a large sample of U.S. audit clients covering 90 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) spanning 2000–2013. We find that audit market concentration is associated with significantly higher audit fees, consistent with the concerns of regulators and managers. We also find that increases in audit market concentration are associated with fewer initial engagement fee discounts (i.e., reduced lowballing), particularly for non-Big 4 clients. We reconcile our findings with those of prior research and find that our divergent findings are attributable to controls for MSA fixed effects. In supplemental analyses, we find that audit market concentration is associated with higher audit quality. We also find that concentration is associated with higher audit quality for first-year engagements, but only if the auditor does not lowball on the engagement. Our results are relevant to the ongoing debate regarding the consequences of increased concentration within the U.S. audit market (GAO 2003, 2008). JEL Classifications: M41; M42; L13.

Policy makers in France have considered joint audits as a solution to mitigate the audit market concentration and the “systemic” risk associated with Big 4 auditors. We implement a Markovian analysis where audit clients chose between different types of combinations across Big 4 and smaller auditors. Our main findings support the view that the French joint audit system is effective in maintaining market openness and in mitigating the Big 4 domination in the long run. An investigation of the determinants driving changes in joint audit combinations suggests little economic support in favor of two Big 4 combinations, whereas changes in audit clients’ agency costs (e.g., higher ownership concentration) tend to explain the performance of mixed and two non-Big 4 combinations. Overall, this study supports the European Commission’s position on the potential benefits of joint audits in mitigating the market concentration; it also suggests that it might not be necessary to impose mixed joint audits to achieve that objective.

SUMMARY We investigate the effects of audit market concentration on audit fees and audit quality in China, where competition is intense and the legal environment is relatively weak compared with developed countries. Analyzing 12,334 firm-year observations for the period 2001 to 2011, we find a significant positive relation between concentration and audit fees. Path analysis shows that concentration improves client earnings quality and reduces the need for auditors to issue modified audit opinions through increased audit fees. Additional analysis indicates that the increased audit fees and client earnings quality resulting from increased concentration are associated with a lower likelihood of executives and auditors being sanctioned by regulators for audit failures. Together, our results suggest that concentration improves audit quality indirectly through increased audit fees and this positive indirect effect offsets the negative direct effect of concentration on audit quality. By separating the direct and the indirect effect of concentration on audit quality, our study would explain why previous studies that do not have a separation document mixed evidence. Our findings inform regulators that actions taken to eliminate the indirect effect of concentration, for example restricting the upper bound of audit fees, could produce unintended outcomes such as decreased audit quality.

ABSTRACT Recently, a system of audit firm rotation has been implemented for the audits of listed companies conducted in the European Union (EU). In the U.S., in contrast, the regulator decided against such rotation. Whereas proponents argue that rotation would strengthen independence and decrease audit market concentration, opponents stress the importance of auditors' learning effects, which would be eliminated by a change in auditors. In extending the market matching model of Salop (1979), we provide an analysis that integrates these contradictory views. We assume that both auditors' industry expertise and their experience in auditing a client decrease audit costs. We investigate the bidding strategies applied to re-acquire clients that were lost due to rotation, auditors' profit contributions, the equilibrium number of auditors (i.e., audit market concentration), and the economic importance of specific clients. Our findings indicate that the regulators' goals of simultaneously decreasing client importance and audit market concentration are in direct conflict and, therefore, the rotation system might have unintended consequences. Our model, thus, suggests how different institutional parameters give rise to economic forces that can support diverging decisions regarding the implementation of MAR.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether the major international audit firms reach collusive agreements in Spain, in order to exercise market power and impose higher prices than those of competitors. According to the traditional theory of oligopoly, the ability to achieve these agreements is dependent primarily on the high level of market concentration, so that multiple studies have analysed the relationship between concentration and prices. However, the concentration has serious limitations to infer collusion and therefore the exercise of market power (Dedman and Lennox, 2009). Design/methodology/approach Based on an alternative current of the theory of industrial organisation, the authors use measures of industrial mobility as a measure of collusion or rivalry of firms in oligopolistic markets. Findings The results reveal that international audit firms do not reach collusive agreements to limit competition between them. Social implications According to the empirical evidence obtained, the measures taken by the regulatory bodies to avoid market concentration would not be necessary or efficient and they would have significant costs for the audit market (GAO, 2003, 2008; FRC, 2009; European Commission, 2010; Competition Commission, 2013). Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to introduce mobility measures to explain market collusion and the exercise of market power in the audit market.

Statutory audit markets across the EU have recently been reformed, with new Regulation on the Statutory Audits of Public Interest Entities coming into force in June 2016. The Regulation imposes stricter requirements on the audits of Public Interest Entities, as originally defined in the Statutory Audit Directive 2006, with the option for Member States to designate additional entities as public interest. Thus, the exact definition of a Public Interest Entity applied varies across Member States. In the UK the definition has not been widely extended and includes listed firms, credit institutions, and insurance undertakings. Private firms in the UK are therefore currently exempt from the more stringent audit regulations. However, even based on the limited, and often mixed, evidence for the private company audit market, the decision to preclude most private companies from the definition of a Public Interest Entity, effectively excluding them from the new audit reforms, may not be appropriate. This thesis, therefore, undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the UK audit market for private companies, in addition to examining the auditing choices of private companies and the economic consequences of these choices. The UK is specifically examined because it is one of a number of countries that have chosen not to extend the scope of the definition of a Public Interest Entity beyond the one set at the EU level. The findings of this research show that, similar to the audit market for listed firms, the private company audit market in the UK is segmented with Big Four dominance among the largest firms and relatively low levels of auditor switching. As a result of this audit environment, private companies that do switch auditor are found to experience economic consequences in terms of a reduction in their credit ratings. Particularly when the reasons for a switch are unknown to investors. In addition, the thesis provides evidence to suggest that following an auditor switch, firms receive both physical and implicit discounts on their audit fees, with price recovery of these discounts over the following three years. Suggesting that low-balling is also present in this audit market, which in turn raises concerns regarding competitive pricing and levels of auditor independence. In sum, the results of the thesis provide strong support that the definition and scope of a Public Interest Entity needs revisiting both within the UK and across all EU Member States. Moreover, it reinforces the idea of extending some of the more stringent audit requirements introduced by the EU Regulation on the Statutory Audits of Public Interest Entities, to ensure that economically important private firms have sufficient oversight.

Auditing has an important role in the corporate governance process and is essential in ensuring confidence in the reliability of financial information. It is important to understand the reasons why, given the costs involved, companies change their auditor and choose a particular level of audit assurance. To date, however, only a limited number of studies on auditor choice issues are available, especially in the UK setting. Further, since the downfall of Andersen, the audit market environment has changed significantly, creating a new audit environment to be researched. In light of these recent developments, the objectives of this thesis are to address both concentration and auditor choice issues. It is divided into two separate but interrelated parts. The first part of this thesis provides evidence on audit market concentration in the UK domestic listed company market from 1998 to 2003. The effect of Andersen’s demise on both audit market concentration and audit fees is examined. Using four different size measures (number of audits, audit fees, clients’ total assets and sales), three measures of concentration are calculated. Results show that the UK audit market has now clearly surpassed the tight oligopoly threshold and, despite auditing significantly fewer clients in 2003 than in 1998, the B5/4 managed to increase their fee dominance. In particular, the decline in B5/4 ‘number of clients’ market share was mainly due to their lower share of the newly-listed companies audit market. On the other hand, the slight increase in B5/4 audit fee market share was due to the net impact of leavers concentrating the B5/4 share and joiners diluting it. Voluntary switches to/from the B5/4 had a relatively small impact on B5/4 market share for both measures. Following Andersen’s acquisition by Deloitte & Touche, market levels of audit fee and audit fee rate (audit fee scaled by total assets) have increased markedly, suggesting that more audit effort is being expended as a way to restore confidence about audit quality after the damage caused by Andersen’s alleged misconduct. The acquisition has also contributed to a further increase in ‘audit fee’ market concentration for the 4-firm concentration ratio (CR4) and in the overall Hirschman-Herfindahl Index measure. Although, Deloitte & Touche gained significant market share in terms of both audit fees and number of audits through its acquisition of Andersen, it is PricewaterhouseCoopers that continues to hold the largest market share. Deloitte & Touche retained 93 former Andersen clients (74%), 21 (17%) moved to another B5/4 auditor and 11 (9%) chose a non-B5/4 firm. While former Andersen clients paid higher audit fees, in aggregate, the increase was, perhaps surprisingly, less than for the market as a whole. At the industry level, the B4 firms dominated all sectors, the highest non-B5/4 market share in any industry being just 8%. In 2003, PricewaterhouseCoopers was the leader in 18 out of 34 sectors. The second part of the thesis is divided into two separate studies – auditor change determinants and new auditor selection determinants. These studies use a sample of non financial auditor change companies to test logistic regression models of the determinants of auditor change and new auditor selection. The determinant variables include auditee, auditor and audit characteristics. This part also examines the sensitivity of results to alternative functional forms of the basic model specification. Two definitions of auditor quality – brand name auditor and specialism, are employed. Internal governance issues such as audit committee independence, the duality of chairman/CEO as well as the size/quality of the incumbent auditor were found to be significant determinants of auditor change. Expected future growth in the company, rather than past growth, and audit fee reduction were positively related to audit change probability. Result also suggests that companies changed auditor to improve the perception of auditor independence. By contrast, in the new auditor selection models, corporate governance variables did not appear to be important in determining a different quality (brand-name) auditor. Only the chairman/CEO duality variable was weakly and negatively significant, suggesting that duality is associated with a change to a lower quality auditor. Growing companies are more likely to change to a brand name auditor, consistent with the inability of smaller firms to provide services across an international market. Contrary to agency theory predictions, the results show that a company experiencing increased leverage is less likely to choose a B5/4 auditor, suggesting that B5/4 auditors are being selective in avoiding risky clients. Higher audit fees are paid to new auditors by companies that changed from non-B5/4 to B5/4, reflecting a B5/4 fee premium. However, the higher NAS fee result is contrary to initial expectations. Typically, far fewer variables were significant in the models with audit quality proxied by industry specialism. For the specialism models based on audit fee market share, there is counter-intuitive evidence that a company with a large number of subsidiaries is less likely to move to a specialist auditor from a non-specialist. New specialist auditors were more likely to be preferred when a company experienced an increase in current accruals or a reduction in leverage. In general, the results for these models were less strong and were dependent upon the specialist definition adopted. Finally, the thesis provides evidence that the choice of time variant model (ex-ante, contemporaneous or ex-post) made no significant difference to the overall results. The one exception concerns the ‘growth’ variable, where companies are found to change auditor in anticipation of future growth, rather than as a response to past growth. Further, the use of alternative proxy variables does not greatly influence the regression results. One important exception to this general observation concerns the brand name proxy. When brand name was defined as tier12 (to include Grant Thornton and BDO) the significance level was improved in all models. This suggests that, to some degree, Grant Thornton and BDO are viewed as quality service providers closer in quality to B5/4 than to other smaller audit firms.

Šiame darbe yra atskleidžiama ir analizuojama audito pasiūla tenkanti kapitalo rinkoms, nagrinėjama jos nepakankamumo problema. Darbo tikslas yra, įvertinus globalius audito pasiūlos pokyčius ir jų įtaką kapitalo rinkoms, atlikti audito pasiūlos ir auditoriaus pasirinkimo veiksnių Baltijos šalių kapitalo rinkoms tyrimą. Darbas skirstomas į tris pagrindines dalis. Pirmojoje dalyje apibūdinamas auditoriaus vaidmuo bei jo reikšmė ekonomikai, atskleidžiamas sisteminės rizikos, kylančios iš audito rinkos pasiūlos nepakankamumo, mastas, aptariamos pagrindinės priežastys, lemiančios esamą audito pasiūlos struktūrą. Antrojoje darbo dalyje analizuojamas darbo objektas – išorinio nepriklausomo finansinio audito pasiūla kapitalo rinkoms, pateikiama darbo tyrimo metodologija. Trečiojoje darbo dalyje aprašomi atlikto tyrimo rezultatai, iškeltų darbe hipotezių tikrinimas, pateikiamos rekomendacijos tyrimo metu nustatytose probleminėse srityse bei tyrimo rezultatų taikymo ir tyrimo plėtotės galimybės. Gauti darbo rezultatai parodė, jog audito rinkos koncentracija visose trijose Baltijos akcijų biržose yra aukšta ir kelia sisteminės kapitalo rinkų rizikos pavojų. Pagrindiniais auditoriaus pasirinkimo veiksniais buvo priimti audituojamos įmonės dydis bei kapitalo kilmė.
This paper discloses and analyses the audit supply for the capital markets and examines its insufficiency problem. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the global changes in the audit supply and to perform a research of audit supply and influencing factors when choosing the auditor in the capital markets of Baltic countries. The paper consists of three main parts. The first part presents the role of the auditor and its significance to the economy, the extent of the systemic risk entailed by the insufficiency of the audit supply, discusses the main causes of the current structure of the audit market. In the second part of this paper the external independent financial audit supply for the capital markets, which is the object of this paper, is analyzed. Also, the research methodology is presented. In the third part of this paper the results of the research and hypothesis testing are presented. It also provides the guideline on the identified problem areas as well as applicability and development capabilities of the research made. The main conclusions showed that the audit market concentration in all three Baltic stock exchanges is high and poses a systemic risk to the capital markets. The key factors when choosing the auditor in the capital markets of Baltic countries is the size and the capital origin of the company.

碩士
銘傳大學
會計學系碩士班
104
This study focuses on Big 4 accounting firm to explore the relationship between audit market concentration and audit quality. Audit market is an industry which is oligopoly competition. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union have raised concern about the audit market concentration in recent years. Prior studies indicate that Big 4 dominance does not harm audit quality. However, if the concentration within Big 4 group is high, it will harm audit quality. This study examines public firm which is audited by Big 4 with a sample of 12649 observations between 2003 and 2013. Audit quality is measured using modified Jones model, and concentration is measured using Herfindahl-Hirschman Index calculated by Big 4 clients’ number and total sales in industry-year. This study finds that audit market concentration has a negative association with audit quality. These empirical results show that abnormal accrual is higher when the concentration within Big 4 is higher. The results suggest that when the concentration within Big 4 is high, it may harm audit quality.

碩士
銘傳大學
會計學系碩士班
104
This study aims to investigate the current situation of audit market concentration and examine the association between audit market concentration and audit fee in Taiwan. Using a sample of 4437 observations listed in Taiwan stock market between 2009 and 2014, the empirical results show that Taiwan’s audit market concentration is high and remains stable during the research period. Furthermore, considering the industry size, the empirical evidence shows that audit market concentration has a positive association with audit fee, which partly verifies the concern of the regulatory bodies, that is, high market concentration might induce potential negative effect on audit fee increases. The last findings show that the industry size could moderate the positive association between market concentration and audit fees, implies that the audit market still remains some degree of competition in the large industries and thus constrains the increase in audit fees.

碩士
東吳大學
會計學系
88
This study describes audit market concentration in Taiwan for the year 1991 and 1998. It extends previous research, which has focused on listed market, by examining auditor concentration ratios across all corporate (listed & OTC, semi-traded public and loan-purpose) sub-markets. Individual and combined Big Six accounting firms and the second tier accounting firms composed by eight CPA firms are calculated with reference to the number of clients audited, corporate size (client sales) and audits fees (the square root of client assets). The major empirical results are summarized as followed: Firstly, the Big Six accounting firms reveal a similar market structure and their clients can easily be found in each sub-market. However, the second tier accounting firms composed by eight firms can only specialize in certain sub-markets. Secondly, listed & OTC sub-market’s audit market concentration is the highest and the loan-purpose sub-market’s is the lowest due to the different severity of agency costs and the demand for high audit quality. Thirdly, this study does not have empirical evidence to support there is the scale of economy effect on the Taiwan audit structure. This study implies that as the degree of concentration in an industry increases, incumbent client firms in that industry will be reluctant to use the same auditors. Finally, measurement of audit market concentration and corporate size are the two key determinants of supplier concentration for audit services.

碩士
國立成功大學
財務金融研究所碩士在職專班
105
The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the IFRS adoption on audit market concentration and the relationship between audit market concentration and audit quality. Investigating publicly traded companies in Taiwan from 2009 to 2015, the findings suggest that there are no significant differences in audit market concentration before and after adoption of IFRS and that discretionary accruals are smaller if the audit market highly concentrates. The result partially supports that there is a significantly positive relation between audit market concentration and audit quality. In addition, the relation between audit market concentration and audit quality does not change after using IFRS.

碩士
國立臺北大學
會計學系
107
In recent years, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gradually received attention. Previous study has confirmed that companies investing in CSR are positively correlated with audit fees. In addition, the rise in the concentration of the audit market has also raised concerns, and everyone pays more attention on its relevance to audit quality. This study conjecture that the quality of the audit will affect the audit efforts of auditors in the face of clients with highly information transparency such as companies engaged in corporate social responsibility activities, and further affecting the audit fees. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to explore the moderate effect of audit market concentration on the relationship between CSR and audit fees. At the same time, in response to the suggestion of Francis et al. (2013) that we should pay attention to the distribution of the concentration of audit market among Big 4. This study divides the market concentration into one or two audit firms leading the overall market and relatively average market share among the Big 4. The sample period of this study is from 2011 to 2017. The preliminary analysis supports the research hypothesis. However, after controlling other variables affecting the audit fees, the moderate effect becomes less obvious. In summary, there is a lower degree of evidence to support that audit market concentration will moderate the relationship between CSR and audit fees.

Scarce attention has been paid to the dimension of sound and its essential role in constructing image, culture, and identity in Chinese film and media. China in the Mix fills a critical void with an original, pioneering study of the connections and intersections of film, media, music, and popular culture in contemporary China under postsocialist reform, capitalist globalization, and hybridization. It explores fascinating topics, including appropriations of popular folklore in the Chinese new wave of the 1980s; Chinese rock ’n’ roll and youth cinema in fin de siècle China; the political-economic impact of free market imperatives and Hollywood pictures on Chinese film industry and filmmaking in the late twentieth century; the reception and adaptation of hip hop; and the emerging role of Internet popular culture and social media in the early twenty-first century. This book examines the articulations and representations of mass culture and everyday life, concentrating on their aural/oral manifestations in contemporary Chinese cinema and in a wide spectrum of media and cultural productions. The research offers the first comprehensive investigation of Chinese film, expressions, and culture from a unique, cohesive acoustic angle and through the prism of global media-cultural exchange. It shows how the complex, evolving uses of sound (popular music, voice-over, silence, noise, and audio mixing) in film and media reflect and engage the important cultural and socio-historical shifts in contemporary China and in the increasingly networked world.

The mechanism of governing corporate affairs in line with strategic goal of shareholders' value creation (SVC) has been pivotal debate among academic and institutional scholars over last few decades. Most of the studies in developing countries including Pakistan, have considered more conventional measures, like firm financial performance to examine the impact of corporate governance (CG). Theoretically, firm financial performance optimization has little role in maximizing SVC, that rarely streams to shareholders' exchequer. Therefore, the study is unique in its nature that identifies market capitalization, the most appropriate measure of value creation for shareholders over long run. The authors gathered panel and longitudinal data pertaining to PSX-100 listed firm over the period of 10 years ranging from 2006-15, which is analyzed using multivariate regression. Hausman and Likelihood tests guide the process of appropriate econometrics model selection. Empirical findings reveal that CG dimensions such as audit committee independence (ACI), managerial ownership (MO) and ownership concentration (OC) have positive impact on SVC, except board size (BS) and board independence (BI). The study offers valuable policy recommendations to make CG practices more effective, however, application of the model proposition at macro and micro level can be a substantial extension to literature incorporating some controlling dimensions.

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the current state of the linkage between corporate governance and performance. Corporate governance is by far the most important subject that should be studied due to its role and significance. Accordingly, there is intensive literature on corporate governance and its possible impact on performance. By conducting a systematic literature review, the authors provide the results of frequently used variables that supposed to reflect the character of corporate governance on firm performance. The study covers the findings of empirical papers that analyze the impact of “board size,” “percentage of independent directors,” “CEO duality,” “ownership concentration,” “audit committee and auditor reputation,” “board meetings,” and “firm size.” The examination of the reviewed studies indicates that there is a need to explain the competing findings observed among firms, markets, and countries by developing a theoretical explanation.

Background: Malignancy related ascites encompasses multiple etiologies which include peritoneal carcinomatosis, hepatic synthetic dysfunction due to parenchymal involvement by the tumour, transcoeloemic metastasis and chylous ascites due to lymphatic obstruction. Primary Cancer type, liver metastasis and serum albumin have been listed as independent prognostic markers in malignant ascites. Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis is usually seen as a complication of decompensated chronic liver disease due to translocation of bacteria or haematogenous dissemination from a distant focus of infection. The combination of a positive peritoneal fluid culture and an ascitic fluid neutrophil count >250 cells/mm3 and no evidence of intra-abdominal source of infection; or 2) culture negative neutrocytic ascites: the combination of negative peritoneal fluid bacterial culture and neutrophil count >500 cells/mm3, without antibiotics within 7 days with no obvious source of infection are used to define spontaneous bacterialperitonitis. Ciprofloxacin prophylaxis has been proposed as a prophylaxis to reduce the incidence and prevent the recurrence of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis. Materials and Methods: A web search of indexed literature was carried out articles containing information on spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in the setting of malignancy or malignancy related ascites or malignant ascites. Articles that carried relevant information about etiopathogenesis, management and translational research in the context of malignant ascites were also included. Results: A total of 32 articles were analysed and about half of them included in the discussion to answer the research question. Discussion: Inflammatory cytokines released by tumor and immune cells compromise the mesothelial cell layer that lines the peritoneal cavity, exposing the underlying extracellular matrix to which cancer cells readily attach leading to formation of spheroids which imparts resistance to anoikis, apoptosis and chemotherapeutics leading to efficient feed forward progressive cycle of seeding and growth of peritoneal metastasis. Intraperitoneal metastasis can cause peritoneal dysfunction, adhesions and malignant ascites. Epithelial mesenchymal transistion and myofibroblastic transformation occur in the mesothelial cells in response to pathological stimuli. Vascular endothelial growth factor is an important mitogen for endothelial cells and plays an important role in increasing capillary vascular permeability. In preclinical studies systemic administration of VEGF Trap which acts as a decoy receptor for VEGF has shown to decrease the formation of ascites fluid and prevent tumour dissemination. Epithelial ovarian cancer cells have developed various mechanisms to evade immune surveillance like development of surface microvesicles which contain CD 95 ligand leading to apoptosis of immune cells. Higher levels of osteoproteogerin, IL 10 and leptin in the ascitic fluid have been associated with a poor prognosis in malignant ascites. Tethered bowel sign and presence of fluid in the omental bursa on CT have been shown to distinguish between malignant ascites and Cirrhotic ascites with accuracy. Immunological approaches to management of malignant ascites include use of intraperitoneal triamcinolone, interferon, long acting synthetic corticosteroids and the trifoliate antibody catumaxomab. VEGF Inhihibitors like octreotide and long acting depot preparations of lanreotide have also been shown to be feasible therapeutic options. Anti androgenic agents and PARP inhibitors have also been proposed as management options. Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in the setting of malignancy in the absence of hepatic dysfunction has been reported to have a poorer prognosis than SBP in the setting of decompensated liver disease. Monomicrobial and polymicrobial bacterascites have been proposed in the absence of an elevated neutrophil ascitic fluid count that does not meet the diagnostic criteria. Extensive liver metastasis where the diseased liver can be expected to behave like a cirrhotic liver and gastrointestinal bleeding (on the basis of an isolated case report) have been considered as risk factors for the development of SBP in malignant ascites. In a case series of 8 patients with malignancy related ascites Patients with total ascitic fluid concentration of less than 1 gm per litre were found to be at risk for Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis and warrant flouroquinolone prophylaxis. Conclusion: Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis complicating malignant ascites is questionable entity. Good quality Audits and Randomised control trials are warranted to in this domain to enable the definition of incidence, antecedent complications, management and prophylaxis to ensure applicability of translational research to the clinical domain.