Tenon acquires Yorkshire insolvency operation
ACCOUNTANCY firm Tenon Group has acquired Yorkshire-based Haines Watts Business Recovery and Insolvency (HWBRI).
The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, sees AIM-listed Tenon add a firm which has its head office in South Yorkshire and operates from seven offices including Leeds.
HWBRI is headquartered at Tankersley near Barnsley and has 130 staff with an annual turnover of £8m.
It boosts the turnover of Tenon's recovery operation to £35m, representing more than 20% of the group's turnover. HWBRI has offices in London, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Worcester. It is affiliated to, not directly owned by, the national accountancy firm Haines Watts.
The move comes after Tenon, which specialises in advising owner-managed businesses, paid £10.4m last yar to move into business recovery in Yorkshire for the first time.
The group acquired the Yorkshire and North West insolvency specialist Unity Business Services and Jackson Jolliffe Cork.
That deal added 11 partners and 110 employees based at offices in Hull, York, Wakefield, Middlesbrough and Bolton.
Unity and Jackson Jolliffe Cork had turnover of £8m in the year to March 31 and profits before partners' remuneration of £3.6m in the same period.
Tenon chief executive Andy Raynor said: “This is solid growth for Tenon Group and its strong Business Recovery division. During 2007 we made successful acquisitions in this and other specialisms, which have comfortably met our expectations. HWBRI represents another earnings enhancing opportunity and we are pleased to have secured it.”
“We have many prospects for expansion across our balanced portfolio of service lines. Our Business Recovery division now comprises one of the leaders in the UK market and we have the capacity and ambition for further growth,” he added.
Tenon's growth by acquisition in the business recovery market reflects that of its quoted rival BTG which last December bought insolvency practice David Horner & Co, which is based in York, Doncaster and Middlesbrough, for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition of David Horner & Co, which has 10 staff, came just a month after AIM-listed BTG bought the insolvency and corporate recovery arm of Bartfields in Leeds.
BTG said the acquisitions would strengthen its presence in Yorkshire and the North East and would add more than £2m of annual revenues.
Manchester-based BTG employs more than 400 staff across 38 offices throughout the country.
