Accountancy firm in '˜a category a one' bullish over Yorkshire growth prospects

Dan Rosinke joins from Yorkshire Bank as a partner in transaction advisory services, Martin Barron joins from Deloitte as a partner in recovery and reorganisation and Rachel Engwell joins from EY as a partner in tax.

Andy Wood, practice leader for Grant Thornton in Leeds, said the hires represent a significant investment and will support the firm’s ambitious plans for Yorkshire.

Mr Wood said: “We are not a Big Four firm and have absolutely no desire to be part of a Big Five. We are no longer a mid-tier firm so we sat between those two groupings of firms, a category of one. Increasingly the market gets that and sees us as something different.”

The accountancy sector has been shaken up by a wave of consolidation among mid-tier firms such as BDO and PKF and Baker Tilly and RSM Tenon.

Meanwhile, the Big Four firms are paying more attention to smaller private businesses in the search for growth.

Mr Wood said: “It’s quite disruptive at the moment. Firms are very thoughtful about where they want to spend their time and energies.

“We are being offered opportunities to talk to businesses in certain parts of the market that we haven’t had before as the market broadens and opens up. That’s our opportunity.

“The challenge is working out where we are going to get the best bang for our buck.”

Mr Rosinke, formerly head of corporate banking at Yorkshire Bank, said there is increased funding available for businesses and increased investment in businesses.

He said: “On the whole, activity levels have been picking up, absolutely. I left the bank with probably our biggest whip list in the last three years and a lot of that was around private equity funding or transactions rather than refinances.”

He said competition among a growing group of funders to lend to good quality Yorkshire businesses has led to a fall in the cost of borrowing.

Mr Barron said: “Companies are going to take advantage of the best financing deal they have got and one of the challenges as advisors will be to say sometimes that’s not the best thing.

“What you want is a package from a supportive funder who’s there for the long term. We know there are debt advisory teams running around doing deals and they are aggressively hitting the banks, saying if you can shave off 0.1 of a basis point off this you get the deal.”

Ms Engwell said she is seeing an increase in foreign investors. She added: “It’s a very attractive place to invest from a tax perspective, the UK.”

The partners expressed some doubt at the recent speech by Chancellor George Osborne in which he warned of “a cocktail of threats” in the global economy.

Mr Wood said: “When you look at the growth forecasts, they are generally as least as good as they were last year. While none of us should forget what a global world we live in now and impacts in China will undoubtedly impact us here in the UK, but those growth indicators are still very strong and you need to be very careful when you listen to Osborne - how much of that is economics and how much is there politics?

“If you were being a real cynic you would say he was on the back foot around the floods and various other things when he was saying, ‘hang on a minute this is not all sorted yet’.”

Mr Rosinke added: “We are not wanting to be over bullish, but I’m coming into this position thinking market conditions are good, it’s a good time to join the firm.”