Bentley Jennison makes global push with RSM coup

The firm is 14th in Accountancy Age‘s top 50, with the RSM network
the seventh largest globally after the Big Four, Grant Thornton International
and BDO.

The firm said this week it hoped to earn revenues of £150m by 2010 and also
reach the number seven spot in the UK in the long term.
Bentley
Jennison plans to stick to its current strategy, it said.

The firm does not carry out audits of companies above a market capitalisation
of £100m.

‘The fastest growing part of our business is providing services in the areas
of risk management, internal audit services and fraud investigations, so we will
focus on these,’ said managing partner Tony Stockdale.

Stockdale was confident that his objectives could be achieved without
focussing on audit wins: ‘Concentrating on internal audit, there is less chance
of conflict of interest with audit clients so there is potentially a lot of work
to be won’.

Speaking on Accountancy Age TV, he revealed that the firm has already brought
in fees 10% above its £63.7m income for last year, with four months still
remaining until its year end.

An ambitious UK member of the RSM network is not new. Robson Rhodes had grand
expansion plans in consultancy that proved largely unsuccessful and left it open
to takeover by Grant Thornton.

After the RSM McGladrey/Robson Rhodes deal came off the table in July,
Stockdale contacted RSMI’s boss Jean Stephens as soon as he learnt the news.

He confirmed that Bentley Jennison had beaten off competition from six firms
to join the RSMI Network.

In joining RSM International, Bentley Jennison will now be able to benefit
from the accounting muscle of the world’s seventh largest accounting network.

Stockdale is relocating from his Midlands base to join his head of audit Phil
Coleman and risk management chief Richard Smith in London, where the firm is
preparing to expand its operations significantly, by moving from its current
main premises in Moorgate to offices that can accommodate double its 100 staff.