Grant Thornton, Foster McAteer in merger

THE IRISH practice of accounting group Grant Thornton has merged with Dublin-based corporate recovery specialist Foster McAteer.

Paul Raleigh, managing partner of Grant Thornton Ireland, said no money was changing hands in the company's merger with Foster McAteer, a company established by corporate finance and consultant Brendan Foster and insolvency expert Mick McAteer.

The enlarged organisation, whose annual fee income will be in the region of €50 million, will have one of the largest corporate recovery units in the State.

"We don't have the conflicts of interest that some of the larger firms may have, so we can develop a clear niche-market leadership in the corporate recovery sector," Mr Raleigh said.

One of the best-known insolvency practitioners in Dublin, Mr McAteer will work alongside Grant Thornton partner Paul McCann in the corporate recovery and forensic business unit of the new entity.

Mr McAteer's recent appointments include the examinerships of McEnaney Construction and MC Publishing, the specialist medical publisher in which a majority stake was ultimately sold to the Irish Press Group.

Mr McCann's recent appointments include the receiverships of Delta Homes and Orwell Motors.

The Foster McAteer business expects revenues of €4 million this year. The company's five partners and 24 staff will join Grant Thornton next month.

In addition to its insolvency practice, the company carries out audit, tax and corporate finance work for clients.

The Grant Thorton operation, which goes into the merger with 28 staff, expects to generate fee income of more than €45 million this year. Annual revenues in the company, which is auditor to Kingspan and Superquinn, stood at €14 million in 2003. The merger with Foster McAteer comes a year after the Irish practice merged with the Dublin office of accountants RSM Robson Rhodes.

Rival accountants FGS, formerly Farrell Grant Sparks, merged with Dublin firm Moore Stephens Caplin Meehan in July, creating a firm with annual fees of some €30 million.

Business information company Experian has reported a 71 per cent rise in company liquidations in the first half of this year and a sixfold increase in the number of receiverships.

Reporting last May on a discernible rise in business failures since late 2007, director of corporate enforcement Paul Appleby said an "increasing number of companies will face challenges in 2008 and some will inevitably fail".