The Urgent Need for Change and The Superior Path Forward
MANAGEMENT HAS NO APPARENT OVERSIGHT OF
PROFESSIONAL
FEES
As one example, the Company has bafflingly chosen KPMG as its auditor-resulting in
its audit costs nearly tripling over the past five years
2014 Audit Fees =
$508,250
PRIVET
FUND
2019 Audit Fees =
$1,636,379
321% Increase in
Audit Fees!
01. 02. 03. 04. 05.
UPG
STRONGER TOGETHER
Meaningful Change is
Required at Synalloy
▪ From 2004 - 2015 Synalloy used Dixon Hughes Goodman as its auditor,
which is one of the largest accounting firms in the Southeast and
among the top 20 largest accounting firms in the nation
▪ In 2014 - the last year Synalloy employed Dixon Hughes Goodman –
Synalloy's audit fees amounted to half a million dollars
■
▪ In 2015, concurrent with relocating the headquarters to Richmond
and building out a corporate infrastructure, Mr. Bram decided to
retain one of the largest accounting firms the world - KPMG
Immediately, Synalloy's accounting fees doubled, and they have been
steadily rising ever since - reaching $1.6 million in 2019
■
In Synalloy's most recent proxy statement, KPMG's 2019 audit fees
were shown to be more than 321% of what they were prior to
switching to KPMG only five years ago
As a $100 million market cap public company, Synalloy does not need to be paying
for the same accounting firm that audits General Electric and Wells Fargo
▪ Audit costs have surely risen during the past five years, but nowhere
close to this amount
1. Note: Universal Stainless ("USAP") the most recent public company that Mr. Bram had tried to acquire in what he deemed to be a "merger of
equals" is roughly similarly sized to Synalloy; USAP employs a mid-size auditing firm and its 2019 total audit fees were only $413,560
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