Roger Daynes
Head of Region – Scotland
Roger has been working in business development for over 20 years across the financial services and technology sectors. Having started his corporate career in Edinburgh, he has since worked in New York, London, mainland Europe and the Middle East, before returning full-circle to Edinburgh.
Scotland’s Accountants Face M&A Surge: How Independent Firms Can Compete
The UK accountancy landscape has been undergoing something of a quiet revolution for many years, which isn’t so quiet anymore. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A), often driven by private equity, have reshaped the sector, with larger networks absorbing smaller firms at an unprecedented pace. The completion of Grant Thornton UK’s sale to Cinven in April, valuing the firm at up to £1.5bn, marks the largest private equity transaction in the UK accounting sector to date. Aberdeen-based AAB, owned by August Equity, is now up for sale with a price tag of £250m.
Whilst M&A activity is a UK-wide phenomenon, Scotland is seeing a particularly sharp uptick. A large number of well established, partner-led accountancy practices are multi-generational and ripe for acquisition due to a range of factors: succession planning gaps, a desire to scale via investment in technology, and the headwinds faced by growing regulatory pressure.
In the full article on LinkedIn, Roger dives into:
-
The upsides of M&A for firms, partners and clients.
-
The challenges of consolidation, from cultural shifts to fee increases.
-
How independent firms are responding through deep relationships, outsourcing, niche specialisation, and agile tech adoption.
-
Why independence itself has become a real point of difference in today’s PE-driven market.
At Amplifi, we support independent accountancy firms who want to offer R&D tax relief advice to clients without building an in-house team. It’s about helping them broaden their service offering while retaining that all-important personal touch.
Join the conversation and read the full article on LinkedIn