Grant Thornton aims at 'big four'

Grant Thornton and RSM Robson Rhodes aim to double their combined fee income to €80 million by 2010 by taking business from the "big four" players.

While PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, KPMG and Deloitte dominate the professional services market, Grant Thornton managing partner Paul Raleigh said he saw considerable scope for growth due to conflicts of interest among those firms.

Head of Grant Thornton before the merger with RSM Robson Rhodes, Mr Raleigh said his focus in the next four or five years would be to build specialist teams "so that we can get the work that was the prerogative and preserve" of the big four.

The combination of the two firms would bring fee income this year to €40 million, he said. Grant Thornton is auditor to Kingspan plc and Superquinn. The RSM business would provide expertise in hedge funds and market listings, he explained.

"We did a document in 2003 which was called Vision 2008. We had strategy to get fee income to €45 million from €16 million. We'll certainly hit our 2008 target. The potential is there for Grant Thornton to double in size by 2010. That's not our sole object in life. I don't want to be a cheap version of the big four. It's about being leaders in our chosen markets," he said.

"Our strategy has in the last years been all about developing expertise in niche areas, specialist areas. You've got the giant four there and they have taken the large audit market, and that has created a wealth of conflicts of interest. We're providing tax services, corporate finance, forensics, and Sarbanes-Oxley work in large corporates because the giant four are conflicted."

The merger follows the collapse of a deal last year to bring together RSM Robson Rhodes with its US affiliate, McGladrey. Mr Raleigh said that his firm acquired RSM Robson Rhodes' fixed assets and working capital for about €4.5 million.

"The Irish branch of RSM was owned by RSM in UK. They were merging with Grant Thornton in the UK, so we acquired the business here in Dublin," he said. "While we acquired the underlying assets, we merged with people."

Some 50 RSM staff - four of them partners - will join Grant Thornton. "For the Irish business it will bring our fee income up to €40 million. With our graduate intake . . . we will employ close to 400 people. We are taking in 50 people in September."