I want to purchase a small UK Accounting Firm.  Could you please
direct me to a site(s) where I can view details of Accounting firms in
the UK to buy.  Perhaps this is available via the Institute or perhaps
via Newspaper classifieds?  I have searched Google already with no
luck.

---

Request for Question Clarification by jem-ga on 31 Aug 2002 13:48 PDT

hi tmol :)

can you let Google Researchers know if it's specifically a "small UK
accounting firm" or would listings for similar businesses, for
example, book-keeping services or credit and finance companies be
acceptable?

---

Clarification of Question by tmol-ga on 01 Sep 2002 16:02 PDT

I am specifically looking for a small UK Accounting firm.  They need
to have Certified Practising Accountant or Chartered Accountant
qualifications amongst their staff and a solid knowledge of UK tax
law.  There are many such small firms in the UK, I am just trying to
find one for sale.  Often such sales are listed in Accounting journals
but I am yet to find anything online.

Please let me know if this is not clear.

---

Request for Question Clarification by jem-ga on 03 Sep 2002 05:50 PDT

Hi tmol :)

I've done some preliminary searching and have to say that thus far, I
haven't come across any UK Accountancy firms that are currently for
sale.  I have, however, come across a number of sites (approximately 5
or 6), that allow you to:

a) search for specific types of UK businesses for sale e.g.
Accountancy firms and/or
b) allow you to request email notifications when a particular type of
business comes up for sale

I would re-iterate that at present, none of these sites have any UK
Accountancy firms listed for sale although they clearly have
catagories which include this type of UK business.

Would a listing of these sites (with brief descriptions) be an
acceptable answer to this particular query?

In the meantime, I have left this question unlocked in case there are
other researchers who are able to provide you with the specific
listing/s that you have requested.

Kind regards
jem-ga

---

Clarification of Question by tmol-ga on 03 Sep 2002 15:41 PDT

Thanks jem, I will increase the price to attract the exact response. 
I want at least 3 firms for sale + the list that you have below. 
Perhaps someone in the UK has a list on paper?  They would need access
to a professional Accounting magazine.

---

Request for Question Clarification by jem-ga on 05 Sep 2002 10:22 PDT

hi again tmol :)

Thus far, I have now managed to find quite a few listings which would
be indicative of a "small UK accounting firm" e.g. fees varying from
approximately £175k - £450k per year.

Two provisos however:

1. It is not immediately clear from the listings whether these firms
have the specific expertise/qualifications that you indicated were
important (e.g. solid knowledge of UK tax law, etc) and
2. The listings will not give you direct contact to the firm in
question - you will need to contact the specialist agent who is
dealing with the sale of the accountacy practice - at that point,
presumably, you can then ask for "further and better particulars" of
the practice such as what areas of expertise they specialise in and so
on. I cannot follow this particular course of action myself as it
requires me to register my personal details with the agents in order
to find out more about the listings.

If you would like me to proceed with answering your question on this
basis, do let me know and I'll provide the listings (i.e. the listings
as provided by the specialist agents handling the sales of accounting
practices) that I have along with the list of sites that I mentioned
in my clarification of 3rd Sept.

As before, I'll leave this question unlocked for other researchers
unless/until you advise that you'd like me to proceed as above.

Kind regards
jem :)

---

Clarification of Question by tmol-ga on 05 Sep 2002 16:09 PDT

Yes, thanks Jem.  I will accept your answer as below:  list of agents
+ other "business for sale" sites.

Hi tmol :)

Thanks for the opportunity to answer your question - as requested in
your clarification of 5th September, please find the completed answer
below.

1. List of Agents (and listings) dealing with the sales of UK
Accounting practices

The list marked "a-e" under this section is taken from the August 2002
edition of Accountancy magazine and represents the PRINT
advertisements as listed in the classified section of Accountancy
magazine.

Foulger Underwood Associates Limited

a. London/SW Sector M25
Fees of £1M for sale. High marginal profitability.

b. South Buckinghamshire
Practice with £340K of fees for sale.

c. Dorking/Reigate area
Quality practice with £250k fees for sale.

d. East Devon
Block of fees of £40K for sale.  Ideally suited to new start up or
purchaser re-locating on semi-retirment.

e. Portsmouth
Practice with quality fees of £275k for sale.

You can also visit Foulger Underwood's website at:

http://www.foulgerunderwood.com

however, please note that you will require Shockwave (Macromedia
Flash) to view this particular site.  Shockwave Macromedia Flash can
be downloaded for free from:

http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=Flash4&P5_Language=English

The site itself is quite basic and a little awkward to navigate
through but the full contact details of Foulger Underwood are listed
and there are also separate "registration" and "contact us" sections
for further contact.

Finally, to access their online listing of accountancy practices for
sale, you need to click on the "Assignments" label at the top of the
page.  At present, they have approximately 11 accounting practices
listed "FOR SALE" on their website - I have provided the direct link
below:

http://www.foulgerunderwood.com/assignments.html

The list marked "f-k" is taken from the August 2002 edition of
Accountancy magazine and represents the PRINT advertisements as listed
in the classified section of Accountancy magazine.

Vivian Sram Limited

f. East London. Fees of £400k

g. Surrey.  Fees of £275K

h. Staffs.  Fees of £110K

i. Surrey.  Fees of £300K

j. Manchester.  Fees of £200K

k. Birmingham.  Fees of £250K

Vivian Sram currently do not have a UK website (I telephoned them and
asked and they said that they are hoping to have one "very soon") but
you can contact them directly as follows:

London Office: Chesham House, 150 Regent Street W1R 5FA
Tel: 0207 437 9955 Fax:  0207 432 0516

Manchester Office: Portland Tower, Portland Street, M1 3LF
Tel:  0161 236 7799 Fax:  0161 238 4901
Email: enquiries@viviansram.co.uk 

The list marked "l-q" is taken from the August 2002 edition of
Accountancy magazine and represents the PRINT advertisements as listed
in the classified section of Accountancy magazine.

Owens Professional Partnership

l. Mid-S Cheshire - Practice for sale, fees of c£150k, average fee of
c£1,000. Premises available if required.

m. N Manchester/S Lancs - Sale, fees c£135k, average fee of c£1,6000.
Premises available if required.

n. N Lancashire - Practice for sale, fees of c£200k, average fee
c£500. Premises part of the deal.

o. N Cumbria - Practice for deferred sale due to retirement, fees
c£300k.

p. N Yorkshire - Retirment sale, fees c£80k, average fee c£660.
Premises part of the deal.

q. S - Mid Cumbria - Practice for sale, fees c£185k, average fee
c£430. Premises available if required.

You can also visit Owens Professional Partnership's website at:

http://www.owensprofessional.co.uk/home.asp

The site itself is very user friendly and professional - the full
contact details of Owens Professional Partnership are listed and there
is also a separate "contact us" section for further contact.

Finally, to access their online listing of accountancy practices for
sale, you need to click on the "Opportunities" navigation tab found on
the left hand side of the website.  At present, they have
approximately 18 accounting practices listed "FOR SALE" on their
website - I have provided the direct link below:

http://www.owensprofessional.co.uk/opportunities.asp

2. Other "Businesses for Sale" websites

a. Goldsmith's Businesses for Sale

http://www.goldsmiths.btinternet.co.uk/BusSalesS.htm

Quite a basic site but with an extensive database of businesses for
sale, organised by geographical regions within the UK.  It appears to
be free to use the database (i.e. to search for businesses) with an
option of paying a minimal fee to directly advertise "Businesses
Wanted for Purchase".  You can download the website's application form
(in Word format) to place a "wanted" ad from here:

http://www.goldsmiths.btinternet.co.uk/ad-form.doc

and can access the database directly from here:

http://www.goldsmiths.btinternet.co.uk/gbs.htm

There are also response forms and "contact us" details available on
the website.

b. Accounting.co.uk

http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/community/

More of a portal site for accountants but check out their section
under "Opportunity Knocks" (found at top right of webpage) which
appears to have listings of accountancy practices for sale from time
to time.  The direct link is:

http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/opportunities/

Be aware that this website does feature some banner ads and also, pop
up windows each time you navigate to a new page.

c. Businesses for Sale.com

http://uk.businessesforsale.com/uk/asp/public/sell/default.asp?country=234

A well organised, professional website with different sections for
selling and buying a business.  There are also "quick search" and
"advanced search" functions found at the top of the webpage and you
can register to receive listings by email:

listings by email:

http://uk.businessesforsale.com/uk/asp/public/search/businessFinder.asp?country=234

browse businesses for sale/services (where you will see approximately
102 listings under the "Financial" subsection:

http://uk.businessesforsale.com/uk/asp/public/browse.asp?sectorid=12939&path=&page=1&country=234

Finally, you can keep a "shortlist" of businesses that interest you
(tied in to the email registration) by visiting:

http://uk.businessesforsale.com/uk/asp/public/shortList/default.asp

d. Businesses for Sale

http://www.cybo.net/bsr/

Very similar to a portal site, this website has "For Sale" and
"Wanted" sections as well as the option to subscribe to the website.
There is also a business news feed which runs alongside the right hand
site of each webpage and a "Contact Us" section listed at the bottom
of each page.

Their current September 2002 businesses for sale (under their
Professional and Financial section) can be found at:

http://www.business-sale.com/nprofe.html

Please note that this site is quite ad-intensive but there appeared to
be no pop up ads as I surfed through the site.

e. Business Sales Online

http://www.businesssalesonline.com/

Billed as "an online business directory of over 1000 businesses for
sale from all over the United Kingdom", this website is quite simple
to navigate and has both "For sale" and "Wanted" sections.  They also
have a section titled "Business Finance" (top right corner of website)
which provides details and a direct application with respect to taking
out a loan to finance any business purchases that you may make.

There is also a "Purchaser Registration" found at:

http://www.businesssalesonline.com/buy/register.asp

and a listing of their current businesses for sale at:

http://www.businesssalesonline.com/business/list.asp

f. Grant Thornton Companies for Sale

http://www.companiesforsale.uk.com/

Very clean, professional and easy to navigate site which provides a
current listing of businesses for sale at:

http://www.companiesforsale.uk.com/bfs.php3?type=opp&stype=browse&start=0&listtotal=4

They also have a "Contact Us" section as well as a useful guide on how
their registration service "Comapnies for Sale" works.  The
registration details and information can be found at:

http://www.companiesforsale.uk.com/bfs.php3?type=opp&stype=browse&start=0&listtotal=4

As with all of the sites listed immediately above, registration for
notification of businesses for sale by email is free.

I hope that the information provided in this answer will assist you
with your search and thanks for your patience during the initial
clarification process.

Kind regards
jem-ga :)

p.s. The actual website of Accountancy Magazine can be found at:

http://www.accountancymag.co.uk/indexb.htm

but please note that there is no direct access to their classifieds
section and the site itself is quite advertisement and frame
intensive.  If you want to contact them directly to place a print
"Wanted" ad in their magazine, you can contact them directly on
telephone number 0208 247 1449 or fax number 0208 247 1388.

Search terms/resources used:

Accounting Magazine August 2002 issue - classified section found at
the back of the magazine (no indicative page numbers)

Google.co.uk search terms:

"uk businesses for sale"

://www.google.co.uk/search?q=uk+businesses+for+sale&btnG=Google+Search&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

"accountancy practices for sale uk"

://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=accountancy+practices+for+sale+uk&btnG=Google+Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB

Excellent, it took some time but a great result.

hi tmol :)

many thanks for your rating and kind comments - I am delighted that
you are pleased with the results and wish you all the best in your
continued search.

kind regards
jem-ga :)