Capital gains for accountancy and business advisory firm

Chartered accountancy and business advisory firm, Hentons, has acquired London-based accountancy firm Clayton Stark & Co, for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition of Clayton Stark & Co will see turnover at Leeds-headquartered Hentons climb to £8.3m and staff numbers increase to 130.

Managing director at Hentons, Peter Watson, said: “Clayton Stark & Co has a particularly strong audit offering and the entire team will join and complement our colleagues in London, who provide a full-service offering including audit, accounts, financial planning, wealth management and taxation services.

“Our team in London also specialise in the music and entertainment sector and are renowned within the music industry, having been shortlisted as accountancy firm of the year at the Music Week Awards for four years in a row.

“With over four decades of experience in this sector, the firm supports managers, promoters, tour teams, agents and musicians and include artistes such as Emeli Sande, Mabel and Katie Melua, with a whole host of services.”

Jan Kariya, senior partner at Clayton Stark & Co, said: “We have been trading for over 66 years and have a loyal client base who will benefit from a number of enhanced service offerings through our partnership with Hentons.

“As well as accessing a larger audit team, clients can now take advantage of specialist financial planning, tax advisory, corporate finance and cloud-based accounting solutions.

“Hentons also has specialist payroll teams, which several of our clients are keen to use.”

Managing partner at Hentons, Nadeem Ahmed, added: “Last September, we created Hentons Corporate Finance via a joint venture with South Yorkshire based Mackenzie Spencer and with this latest acquisition, we now employ over 130 people across our offices in London, Leeds, Sheffield, York, and Thirsk.

“With ambitious acquisitive and organic growth plans for the future, we have seen the growing demands on compliance, the need to invest in technology and the challenges of attracting the best talent in a competitive market place, has prompted many well established independent firms of accountants to consider the benefits of joining us.

“We are a proactive practice that can help unlock their potential.”