04.06.2007

Overall revenues up 8.5% on the previous 12 months.

Scott-Moncrieff, one of Scotland’s leading independent accountancy and professional services firms, has reported further growth for the financial year 2006-07, with overall revenues of £12.7 million, up 8.5% from £11.7m for the previous 12 months.

Alan Donaldson, Scott-Moncrieff managing partner, comments:

“This latest set of results is proof that our strategy of providing a broad range of services for Scotland’s key SME marketplace, public sector bodies and charitable organisations, combined with a comprehensive ability to provide specialist advisory services to Scottish headquartered plcs and high net worth individuals continues to be a successful business model”.

“Our fee income growth is up across the board this year, with notable double digit growth in Corporate and Consulting Services (+20%), which includes corporate finance and business technology consultancy, and Wealth Management Services (+21%). Our traditional core areas of Audit and Assurance (+8%) and Tax (+6%), on which the firm’s success has been founded, also continue to grow strongly and show no sign of abating.

“Our corporate finance team has had a very good year with involvement in over 40 deals. The year started well with us acting as lead adviser on Scotland’s - and possibly Europe’s - largest ever community buyout. This was the purchase of 93,000 acres on South Uist, Benbecula and Eriskay in a £4.5 million deal.

“Our Business Technology consultants have also performed strongly, advising a range of organisations on their IT strategies, implementation and security issues. We are experiencing a rising demand for our services in such fields as companies grow and the complexity of their IT infrastructures increase.

“In Audit and Assurance we have made notable progress, increasing our involvement with good quality SMEs and also advising embryonic companies in the renewables industry, which is likely to be of increasing importance to Scotland in future. We work with many leading Scottish headquartered companies such as A.G.BARR plc, Lees Foods plc and emerging businesses such as Ocean Power Delivery Ltd, both in Scotland and in Portugal, and Wind Energy Ltd. Our risk management specialists are also being increasingly called upon to give advice in the SME market.

“We remain the number one provider of audit services to charities in Scotland, working with 23 of the top 100. Our clients include a wide variety of organisations ranging from the Aberlour Childcare Trust and Drumchapel Opportunities to SACRO and The Scottish Wildlife Trust.

“In part, the increase in this year’s revenues is a result of Audit Scotland awarding Scott-Moncrieff an increase of 15% in public sector audit work in the most recent tendering round. This reflects the fact that the firm has consistently been rated as one of the top providers of public sector external audit services over the last 10 years.

“Our Tax division has also performed well in what has been a competitive environment. The VAT team has been involved in a number of interesting projects, for example, advising several Further and Higher Education institutions and Arts and Heritage bodies, and we have also been asked by a number of smaller accountancy firms to provide specialist VAT advice.

“Succession planning is an important consideration for many companies and their owners, and the Tax team has been active in this area, often linking with their Wealth Management colleagues to offer a complete package of comprehensive tax planning and financial investment advice.

Looking Ahead

“We recognise the importance of the SME marketplace to Scotland’s future economic growth and will continue to ensure we have the appropriate range of skills available to assist such companies to improve their competitiveness and manage their businesses effectively. This is an evolving marketplace that demands high quality provision of core accountancy and business advisory services, allied to the ability to provide tailored added value services that assist them in developing their business.

“The MBO/MBI market was very buoyant throughout the past year and shows no signs of weakening. Many owner-managed businesses are increasingly looking for their employees to buy the business from them and we are actively encouraging our clients to begin the business grooming for sale process as early as possible.

“We will also continue to ensure that we support our existing clients in the public sector, charitable and not-for-profit sectors, ranging from NHS Fife and NHS Forth Valley, to Orkney and Fife Councils and from The National Trust for Scotland to the Link Group Limited. We understand the culture and key drivers in these sectors and the demands put on those who work in them, and we are well positioned to assist our clients operate in an efficient and cost effective manner.

“We have secured an increase in external audit work from Audit Scotland for the next five years, and we will also be seeking to help other public sector bodies make savings and improve their service delivery during what will inevitably be a period of tighter scrutiny over public sector spending.