technology 41 A team fit for a constantly evolving market
Leading business and financial advisers Grant Thornton is to launch a Thames Valley technology team, to leverage its existing technology practice offerings across a wider region and to a wider audience, writes Eleanor Harris
Grant Thornton has decided that its national technology practice will be led from the Thames Valley, due to the high concentration of technology businesses in the region. The firm has had a technology practice since 1999 and an active technology team in the region for an equally long time, but has recently merged its Oxford, Reading and Slough offices to create a Thames Valley office, creating the opportunity to involve more people and to leverage the team across a wider region.
Wendy Hart is to head up the new Thames Valley technology team, as well as running the national technology practice. Hart’s excited about the new opportunity: “It’s really the opportunity to combine two things. First of all, the team is a really strong team. In their own service line they are all excellent, and they’re all excited about it, but also it’s a massive opportunity: the Thames Valley is absolutely packed with interesting technology companies, and the ability to offer them something as coherent as a focused technology practice which can demonstrably take businesses from relatively early stage, through an entrepreneurial phase, through to float or exit or private equity investments, to take clients right the way through that journey, and to flex our service as we go through to meet their needs, that’s a really powerful offering and there’s masses to go for in terms of the market.”
The core team is made up of 10 partners and senior managers who have worked with technology businesses for a long time and who all have their own specialisms within the team. It includes, for example, the firm’s national head of R&D tax credits, Samantha Vanags, assurance partner Nick Watson, who focuses on the very largest technology companies, Jim Rogers and Hart who focus on entrepreneurial technology companies, and Duncan Lamb, a corporate finance partner who has a concentration of technology experience in deal terms. “It really is a pool of enthusiasts who bring their focus on one technical aspect – so tax, or corporate finance in my case – to advising technology companies” says Hart.
Hart, who is also a corporate finance partner, brings a breadth of experience to the role. She ran the firm’s technology practice from 2000 until 2006, so this is something of a reprise, she says. Her corporate finance background is particularly useful in a sector like technology which is constantly moving and therefore very transactional by nature, she says, and she brings experience of transactions and the associated networks to the team and client base.
Hart says her role is about making sure the team has what it needs to deliver a first-class client experience: “It’s about making sure that we’ve got the technical expertise and that that’s kept up to date, it’s about making sure that we’re logged into the right networks so that everything that our clients need in terms of business services we can help them find. So, being hooked into the private equity firms that are active in the technology
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2011
space, understanding which lawyers have expertise with technology companies, knowing which banks are interested in the sector – all of that is an important part of the role in terms of feeding that through via the team to the client base, so that we’re the whole package.”
So what are the services that the team will offer, and what issues does Hart think will crop up?
“Certainly at the entrepreneurial end of the market there are a series of issues which tend to face the majority of technology companies. One of them is funding, so there’s fundraising, structuring and financing, so that they have what they need in order to grow. Almost all technology companies who have gone through a funding round and are trying to grow will want to incentivise their key staff by means of share options, so one of the things that we classically get involved with quite early in a relationship is structuring share option schemes. Research and development tax credits are a key source of revenue for early-stage companies, and as companies get bigger as well, we manage the R&D tax credit claims for some of our largest clients, so that’s relevant right the way through a technology business’ cycle.
“Transactions – quite a lot of them are private equity-invested. Private equity naturally focuses on technology because of the growth profile, and the innovation. We’ve got lots of experience of management buyouts and advising companies on private equity investment and divestment. In the audit field, we tend to come across the same issues over and over again around revenue recognition, and we’ve got loads of experience of working out what the right answer is in terms of revenue recognition for our audit clients. There’s a host of things that crop up again and again. International expansion is another obvious one.”
How would Hart say the team’s services are unique?
“The team that we now have in the Thames Valley is a massively experienced team who are also quite entrepreneurial and I think therefore that we bring real energy, real experience and depth of experience in the sector. So there’s the normal service offering that you would get from a big accountancy firm, including the international capability and the networks, fronted by people who are really passionate about working with technology businesses.
“The real focus on growth companies is perhaps different to some of the larger accountancy firms and the ability to take companies right the way through to float or private equity exit and to help in an international strategy is something that the smaller firms can’t necessarily offer with the same degree of credibility. So we probably fill a gap in the entrepreneurial mid market, with the ability to support much larger companies as well, and I think that’s relatively unusual in the Thames Valley.”
Wendy Hart
How does Hart see the team developing and growing in the future?
“I see us winning more clients and helping those clients on their journey. I see us doing ever more transactions in the sector. We’ve probably done more transactions in the technology sector than anybody else in the Thames Valley over the last two or three years, anyway, and I see that continuing. I see us working with some of the larger corporates in the Thames Valley, because we have demonstrated our ability to service clients at that scale and bringing the technology team to them in a very much more focused way. I see us winning more work there and more clients.
“I see us responding to the changing needs of the technology market, because it is a constantly evolving marketplace, in order to develop new ideas and new service offerings that will support technology companies as they trade and grow. A key part of what I think I need to do is to stay a step ahead of the market in terms of what a technology’s business needs will be. No accountant can credibly claim to clearly understand every technology that they come across in depth, but I think when you’ve seen as many technology companies go on their journey as I’ve seen, you realise that there are a consistent set of needs to be met and a real need to understand the business models as they evolve, and I think if you can do both of those things then you can make sure that your service offering evolves to meet those changing needs, and that is what we will do.”
Details: Wendy Hart 01865-799938
wendy.e.hart@uk.gt.com www.grant-thornton.co.uk
www.businessmag.co.uk
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