Yorkshire accountancy firm to become “industry player” following London acquisition

A Yorkshire headquartered chartered accountancy and business advisory firm has acquired a London accountancy business for an undisclosed sum.

Hentons is ranked as one of the top 100 accountancy firms by fee income in the UK by industry bible Accountancy Age, and its acquisition of Clayton Stark & Co., will see turnover at the firm climb to £8.3m and staff numbers increase to 130.

The investment into the London office by Hentons, reflects the firm’s strategy of increasing its national footprint and service offering to clients.

Peter Watson, managing director at Hentons, commented: “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. Our expertise in the entertainment sector is matched by our specialist sector experience in healthcare, property, manufacturing, and the not-for-profit sector.”

Nadeem Ahmed, managing partner at Hentons, said: “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.

“The acquisition underpins our commitment to our team and clients and firmly places us as a significant industry player, as well as one of the top 100 firms in the UK, specialising in advising SME businesses, family companies, entrepreneurs, and high net worth individuals.

“With ambitious acquisitive and organic growth plans for the future, we have seen that 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 Hentons, as we are a proactive practice that can help unlock their potential.”

Jan Kariya, senior partner at Clayton Stark & Co, added: “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.”