Ernst & Young poised for big push in Scotland

"BIG four" accountancy firm Ernst & Young is to unveil a significant expansion of its operations in Scotland.

Scotland on Sunday has learnt that Hywell Ball, managing partner for Scotland at E&Y, has drawn up plans to grow the Scottish business by "at least" 20 per cent over the next three years.

E&Y already employs more than 750 staff at its offices in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.

Andy Baldwin, managing partner of Europe, the Middle East and Asia, hinted during an address to the Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE) annual dinner last week that the firm planned a big expansion in Scotland.

It has now emerged that Ball will reveal further details of the growth plan this week and the announcement is expected to provide a significant boost to Scotland's battered financial services sector.

"We are about to embark upon our new three-year plan for Scotland," Ball told Scotland on Sunday.

"This includes expansion across both our corporate and financial services practices and extends to a number of service lines and sectors including advisory, consulting and forensics.

"We aspire to grow our Scottish business by at least 20 per cent during that time."

E&Y has already been involved in some of Scotland's most high-profile deals this year, including distillery company William Grant & Sons' acquisition of C&C's spirits and liqueurs divisions for 250 million.

E&Y also acted for Kwik-Fit during the disposal of its Insurance Services business to Belgium's Ageas, formerly known as Fortis, for 215m.

Other recent deals include Senergy Holdings' acquisition of SGC Engineering.

After three years of crisis, there are some in the industry now openly talking about an upturn in activity.

Mark Tennant, chairman of the SFE, told last week's dinner that "2010 has seen our industry here go from strength to strength. Assets under management have increased to some 650 billion."

He said there was evidence of investment across the board, including the expansion at Tesco Bank, Virgin Money and the growth of sectors such as asset servicing, which was not fully appreciated.

Tennant said: "I want to see us competing hard over the coming years with Luxembourg and Dublin. Changing EU regulation in this area will present new opportunities and I have no doubt that our members will be quick to seize them."

He said attempts were under way to encourage the Independent Commission on Banking to extend its inquiry with a visit to Scotland.