The big four leap forward

The Big Four in the UK has inched closer to becoming a Big Five as Grant Thornton UK merge with RSM Robson Rhodes.

Grant Thornton’s expanded firm becomes the fifth largest in the UK, with a combined turnover of about £375m, overtaking BDO Stoy Hayward. The merged practice, which should be in place for 1 July 2007, hopes to break the £0.5bn turnover mark within three years. It will have over 300 partners and 4,400 staff. However, Grant Thornton UK remains much smaller than the Big Four firms, which all have turnovers of £1bn - £2bn. The Big Four will still dominate the audit market for the biggest companies, currently auditing all but seven of the FTSE350.

Michael Cleary remains chief executive of the enlarged Grant Thornton. He said: ‘RSM Robson Rhodes represents a perfect fit for Grant Thornton, boosting the firm’s expertise and reputation in financial services, property and construction, health and education, and public sector work. It is also a boost to our efforts to break down those market perceptions which would not naturally associate Grant Thornton with the larger public audit market. We are now gearing ourselves to stimulate competition and offer stakeholders greater choice in this space. This deal stretches our existing dominance as the adviser and auditor of choice on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), and more than doubles our presence on the FTSE.’

David Maxwell, currently managing partner at RSM Robson Rhodes, argued that the merger ‘boosts our dominant role on AIM - that of leading auditor within the public sector and biggest auditor of stock market companies outside of the Big Four’.