Jones takes helm at G&T as group posts £10m profit

Simon Jones is set to take over the reins at QS and project management group Gardiner & Theobald, which this month posted its first results as a limited liability partnership.

Jones will be formally made managing partner of the business in May following the retirement of Peter Sanders. QS News also understands that Jones is the firm's highest paid earner. That position is listed as making the individual £751,000 for the year to 30 April 2005. This is 50% more than the earnings of Davis Langdon senior partner Rob Smith, who took home £507,000 in the same period. EC Harris chairman Richard Clare earned £405,000 for the year ended 30 April 2004. G&T refused to comment on its latest results and on who its highest paid earner is.

Jones currently manages the firm's project and construction management arm Gardiner & Theobald Management Services. He is one of three ‘designated members' listed in the results, released from Companies House this week. The other two are Sanders and Colin Wyatt, who retired from the firm last April.

The results reveal a profit for the period of £10.2m on a fee turnover of £69.5m. The profit figure was after £8m of operating profit was shared between the 81 partners at the firm.

Sources close to the company claim profits at G&T have eased somewhat compared to previous years, where the profit level was around the £12m mark, although no figures were listed for the 2004 results. Growth is understood to have been around 3-5% in the last couple of years.

An industry source said the market perception was that G&T remained a strong player in the market. "It's as profitable if not more so as anyone else out there. It still retains good connections with big institutional clients."

G&T is as profitable if not more so as anyone else out there. It still retains good connections with big institutional clients

Industry source

The results also reveal that under new accounting regulations the firm's pension fund is £10m in deficit. The statement stresses this situation is hypothetical and sources close to the firm said G&T's balance sheet was strong as it had net assets of £9m allowing for the liability.

It is unclear whether the ending of G&T's global alliance with partners Rider Hunt Levett & Bailey will affect the firm's performance significantly. The alliance, which was formed in 1997, was terminated last May.

Julian Anderson, president of US operation Rider Hunt Levett & Bailey, which is not linked to Rider Hunt in the UK, confirmed to QS News in October that the alliance between G&T had collapsed due to a row over operations in China.

Anderson said: "The parties were unable to come to a happy arrangement. It's apparent that if the territorial issues were not adequately defined, the probability of difficulties arising is always there."

A former G&T employee said the alliance had floundered after the departure of senior partner Roger Fidgen, who retired in 2004 and has since become chairman at listed engineering consultant Waterman.