Two UK accountancy firms are in advanced talks over a merger deal that will create a business with around 3500 staff and more than 30 offices.
BDO and PKF confirmed plans for a tie-up of their operations, bringing together the UK's sixth biggest and 12th largest accountancy firms with combined revenues of nearly £400 million.
The groups said it was too early to say what the impact would be on staff and offices, but stressed they had a "commitment to growth".
The deal – for an undisclosed sum – is expected to take place early next year and will be the first merger of its kind in the market for 15 years, according to the groups.
Simon Michaels, managing partner of BDO, said: "The merged firm will have a strong balance sheet, as well as unrivalled sector and geographic strength in many areas."
The merger would see PKF, which has more than 1200 employees and 20 UK offices, become part of BDO International after the merger and be rebranded as BDO.
PKF, currently handling the administration of Portsmouth Football Club, has seen revenues come under pressure over the past year, with total income down by £5 million to £103.3m in the 12 months to March 31.
Part of PKF International, its UK operation is headquartered in London and has major regional offices including sites in Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
BDO has been appointed to wind up oldco Rangers. The firm, which has 13 UK offices including one in Glasgow's York Street, had UK fee income of £281.5m in the year to last September 30. It is the UK's sixth biggest, after PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young and Grant Thornton.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article