The deal, to be hammered out over the next fortnight, would see the end of HACAS Consulting and the creation of a new body, HACAS Chapman Hendy.
Both firms insisted the move was a non-hostile merger.
HACAS Chapman Hendy would be part of the overall HACAS Group PLC, alongside HACAS Exchequer Services and HACAS Asset Management.
Shares in HACAS Group rose by 2.5 pence immediately following the announcement.
Chapman Hendy senior director Peter Chapman will join the board of the group. Existing directors of HACAS Consulting and Chapman Hendy Associates will form the board of HACAS Chapman Hendy.
Each has seen pre tax profits double in the past year, and between them they are advising around two thirds of the current transfer round.
Each organisation believes it can benefit from the other's client base. Chapman Hendy specialises mainly in local authority work, particularly transfers, and produced recent guides for the government on resource accounting and business planning. HACAS Consulting, on the other hand, has largely concentrated on housing association financial advice.
The combined organisation will have more than 100 consultants and and 20 support staff and aims to offer a "one-stop-shop" service to the new breed of larger, metropolitan local authority clients interested in transfer.
HACAS Chairman Julian Ashby said it would open up new business with a wider range of services in the housing sector and throughout the UK. HACAS has no office based in the north, unlike Chapman Hendy. "This is a major step for both organisations," he said.
Chapman denied that the new organisation would subsequently monopolise the market. He said: "We thought very long and hard about the competition aspects but actually the number of players who are now in the local authority consultation market and in the transfer market is expanding."
Source
Housing Today
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