Grant Thornton swoops to poach Andersen team

Published on Wednesday 22 May 2002 01:00

GRANT Thornton, the business advisory company, has taken on the entire project finance team of devastated accounting firm Andersen in Scotland.

The company confirmed today that team leader John Watt and five colleagues had already come to an agreement with Andersen to leave, and that GT had stepped in and poached the team in full.

Mr Watt is joining GT as a partner, while Nathan Goode joins as a director. Two other former Andersen managers and two executives will also be joining GT, based in Edinburgh.

The team has been responsible for some impressive PPP work in the past, including the 120 million Edinburgh schools deal and a similar one for the Highland region worth 20m. It also recently handled a 314m PPP project for vehicles for London Fire Brigade.

Andrew Godfrey, GT’s Scottish managing partner, said the expansion of its operations will allow it to grow its business throughout the UK and Europe from its Scottish base.

Mr Watt said: “We are delighted to be joining one of the most successful and well regarded project finance teams in the country. Given the continuing commitment from the Scottish Executive to invest in the country’s infrastructure this is an excellent time to be joining.”

It is widely known in the market that Andersen has been losing clients in Scotland, following its involvement in the Enron scandal in the United States.

A spokeswoman for the company’s senior partner in Scotland, Fred Hollsworth, said 90 staff had been lost in Scotland out of a total workforce of 240, as part of 1500 job losses in the UK. The most notable client defection north of the Border has been Stagecoach.