RSM Tenon Group (LON:TNO), the accounting and business services group, has paid £6.8m for some of the assets of its stricken rival Vantis Plc (LON:VTS), which slipped into administration yesterday. The deal includes the trade and assets of three of Vantis’s business and advisory offices at Wigmore Street (London), Leicester and Epsom, the Thames Valley Recovery practice and the Financial Management business. The deal promises to double the size of RSM Tenon’s operations in London, which are viewed as strategically advantageous in the further development of the group. It will also give its recovery operations a broader presence in the important Thames Valley region and enhance the overall Financial Management operations of the group. Shares in RSM Tenon rose by 1.8% on the news to 42.5p.

RSM Tenon said the businesses provided accounting, taxation and business advice predominantly to private businesses and their entrepreneurial owners; restructuring, turnaround and insolvency services to mid-sized corporate businesses and the services of Independent Financial Advisers to entrepreneurial clients. The group will take on approximately 300 personnel as part of the acquisition

Integration of the new assets will be amalgamated within the current integration programme for RSM Bentley Jennison, and is expected to take approximately six months. The acquisition is being financed through RSM Tenon’s existing bank funding, which is to be extended to maintain the level of headroom within the group. An additional £10m revolving credit facility will be provided by Lloyds TSB on terms consistent with the group's existing facilities. In the financial year ended April 30, 2010, the acquired assets generated total revenues of approximately £27m and achieved a profit contribution (before central costs) of approximately £4.1m.

Andy Raynor, RSM Tenon’s chief executive, said: “These high quality teams and services add significantly to our own operations in areas of strategic importance, especially in London, Financial Management and Recovery. The experience gained in implementing the merger with RSM Bentley Jennison has enabled us to act quickly to complete this exciting transaction and will provide a template to achieve successful integration.”

Shares in Vantis were suspended on June 14 after the group confirmed that despite efforts to reorganise its finances it was uncertain whether it had enough cash to keep operating. The debt-laden group, which handled the administrations of many companies that suffered at the hands of the economic downturn,…

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