Tenon seeks £76m merger with RSM Bentley Jennison
ACCOUNTANCY group Tenon is planning to buy its smaller rival RSM Bentley Jennison in a £76.3m cash and shares deal.
Both firms have offices in the region with Tenon based in Manchester, Bolton, Chorley, Preston and Rochdale, and Bentley Jennison running its north west interests from Manchester.
The merged organisation will be called RSM Tenon and will become the seventh largest accountancy firm in the UK with 50 offices and 3,000 staff.
Tenon, which has a North West turnover of £39m and around 570 staff, plans to make cost savings of around £6.3m in the first year.
The firm said it will pay for the acquisition with a £40m placing of new shares at 45p each. In addition shares worth £17.5m will be issued to the shareholders of RSM Bentley Jennison and a deferred cash consideration of £18.8m will be paid over the next three years.
A further £9m in cash and shares may be paid, “dependent on the realisation of contingent assets in RSM Bentley Jennison of at least equal value”.
The deal must be approved by Tenon’s shareholders at a general meeting on December 29.
Tenon’s chief executive Andy Raynor said: “This deal brings together two of the most substantial entrepreneurial businesses in our industry. It is the beginning of a new era of opportunity and growth for our teams and provides us with an excellent platform from which to challenge traditional approaches to client focus and service delivery.”
Tony Stockdale, national managing partner of RSM Bentley Jennison, said: “We recognised the significant power of combining our practices. This deal is an extremely exciting proposition and benefits all stakeholders – the shareholders, both teams and most critically our respective clients who will undoubtedly benefit from the new and considerable depth of resource and expertise.”
In the year to June Tenon reported an operating profit of £19m on turnover of £150.8m. RSM Bentley Jennison generated revenue of £71.3m in year to September and operating profit of £9.6m.
