Tax revenues boost growth at Tenon

Tenon recorded a huge 50% rise in tax revenues for the first six months of
2007, bucking the trend of the profession more generally.

In the first half of the financial year the firm made £74.1m in turnover
mainly due to a surge in its financial services arm backed up by its specialist
taxation operation services, the firm
said this
week.

Tenon declined to indicate whether
the £20m fee increase in the divisions was down to any particular market shift,
preferring to attribute the heightened activity to a focussed supply to meet
demand.

The sizeable increase is confirmation that the firm has built on the marked
turnaround it engineered last year after a period in the doldrums, which at its
lowest ebb saw board members consider a management buyout after a strategic
review.

Raynor said that there would be no attempt to stage another management buyout
after the MBO was shelved last year in the wake of a negative reception from
analysts which led to low bid offers.

‘Absolutely not,’ said Raynor. ‘We’ve had a look over the fence and we like
the view better from here.’

‘There is no disappointment from me. There is a great opportunity in this
business and so I am not going to spend any heightened activity time looking
backwards with regret.’

Tenon is now firmly committed to its public status after its past teething
problems, which saw the firm part company with previous chairman Neil Johnson
and replace him with veteran
AIM
investor Bob Morton.

Raynor said Morton’s impact on the firm had been telling: ‘He’s made a
difference in our understanding of what it’s like to be a public company.

‘Being a public company isn’t the main event in itself, you’ve also got to
report the business. You’ve got to talk to your investors and the City regularly
and constantly, which we didn’t do before.’

Raynor forecasted that more firms would take the plunge and go public this
year. ‘It isn’t for everybody, but for some of our competitors it could be a
very good place to be,’ he said

Smith & Willimason is currently preparing to push the button an Autumn
float, with the price tag expected to be as much as £250m.